China retains Internet users in an attempt to control social network

Chinese authorities have begun to keep Internet users for allegedly spreading rumors on the net, in its latest measure to help the country to monitor social media sites.


China's State Internet Information Office said the number of online internet rumors were fabricated, and gave the relevant departments to prosecute the perpetrators, according to a Tuesday report from China's state-run news agency Xinhua.

The so-called rumors of a case where a user is allegedly disseminating false information about income tax provisions of the state, falsification of documents. The user was arrested for 15 days. In another case, arrested a Chinese student from Yunnan, after what the government is to spread a rumor about an incident in which eight officers killed a man in his village on blogs and forums. The "rumor" that the man had told officers killed because of pollution generated from a cement plant.

Rumors, or just to stop the flow of facts?
China censors the Internet is already difficult for anti-government and politically sensitive content, and sites with local news organizations to the laws. But last month the Chinese authorities have discussed the need for land control popular microblogging sites, known in Chinese as Weibos who are like the American service Twitter.

While micro-blogging sites have received hundreds of millions of Internet users, the places also a hotbed of rumors. August last year, a top Chinese Communist Party official urged Internet companies to stop spreading false information.

By intervening against the latest round of rumors on the net, the authorities have closed several accounts microblogging, according to Xinhua report. The websites that the accounts needed changes. The authorities are also currently looking for the creators of several other rumors, including a female high school student who paid for sex with an officer is found.

China's State Internet Information Office can not be reached for comment. But according to the report, the office said specific users and sites that are lacking in credibility that an orderly dissemination of information interfere with their rumors. "This is the social order of influence, and should be treated under the law. We will not allow the unhealthy trend of rumors spread on the Internet," the company said.

News of the arrests comes as China has been the importance of online social networks, and the influence they can exert on society to understand, says Phelim Kine, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch in Asia. The lesson was clear when in July, the Chinese Internet users took to micro-blogs of the nation to complain and criticize the authorities handle a high-speed train wreck that killed dozens.

"Rumors can damage the goodness of ordinary Chinese people"
"The government wants to castrate the Weibos. It wants to be able to scare people not sharing information, so think twice about sharing information that may or may not be" sensitive "," Kine said.

Governments have the right to disseminate information that could harm the public to stop, Kine said. But in the case of China's achievements, there is no independent regulatory body set up to determine what information was rumor. "This is a major problem with regard to freedom of expression," he says, adding that the Chinese micro-blogs can ultimately resort to require their users to register their real names.

A number of Chinese Internet users, but said in interviews that they support the government's efforts.

A Chinese microblog user named Chen Zhirong, said that all the online gossip should be stopped and the Internet behind them should be held accountable. "Right now the rumors on the internet and micro-blogs are prevalent before," he said. "For them not to fight and not punish the rumor starters will only encourage the arrogance of the Internet companies' websites."

Another Chinese microblogging users who refused to give his real name, says the authorities should carefully deal with online rumors. "These rumors goodness ordinary Chinese people harm," he said.

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