Online rumours are drugs that damage users and harm society, the Chinese state media has said as officials step up attempts to rein in the country’s popular microblogs.
One commentary, published by the official Xinhua news agency, warns that, whereas heroin and cocaine damage health, internet rumours are worse because they “poison the social environment and affect social order”.
Another, on People’s Daily Online, is titled “Internet rumours are drugs: please resist and stay away from them.” It calls for zero tolerance, suggests that the rumours “damage people and society” as narcotics do and accuses rumourmongers of having ulterior motives and “kidnapping public opinion”.
The intensification of attacks on “rumours” emerged as officials said they had detained several people for spreading rumours online and amid increasing controls on microblogs, which have been urging users to register their real names, and deleting accounts deemed to have crossed the line.
China has 300-million registered microblog users and although services are censored — blocking prevents sensitive terms from being posted and other material is often deleted — authorities are increasingly concerned at the speed at which information can spread.
Microblogs have spread news of protests, exposed scandals and became the locus of public outrage at the high-speed rail crash in Wenzhou earlier this year.
Weeks later, a senior official visited the headquarters of Sina, which runs the biggest microblogging service, and urged internet companies to prevent the spread of false and harmful information. Charles Chao, chief executive of Sina, said subsequently it was establishing more mechanisms to squash rumours.
David Bandurski, of Hong Kong University’s China media project, said the new commentaries, with their “patina of moral decadence”, were “helping to whip up an atmosphere where it’s easier to tackle social media. It’s part of a general campaign to put more pressure on microblogs”.
Many internet users fear the drive against “rumours” will also be used to suppress sensitive stories and criticism of officials.
Bandurski said: “At its base, this is about news control. That’s what creates an atmosphere where nothing is believable and nothing is believed and the government just has to say something for people to believe it’s not true.”
On Sunday, the state information office announced that it had detained several people for inventing a rumour that HIV-positive people and Aids patients were lacing restaurant food with their blood.
Sina has set up a “rumour control” team. It has also begun issuing warnings to users judged to have crossed the line and suspending and deleting accounts. It is encouraging people to register in their real names by adding a “medal of honour” for users who provide details for police checks. —