China has intensified efforts to clean up the internet of fake news and rumours, closing more than 100,000 online accounts that misrepresented news anchors and media agencies over the past month
Its cyberspace regulator announced on Monday that the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) launched a special campaign to clean up online information, focusing on social media accounts that disseminate “fake news’’ and impersonate state-controlled media.
The regulator said it had wiped 107,000 accounts of counterfeit news units and news anchors and 835,000 pieces of fake news information since April 6.
The cleanup comes as China and countries grapple with an online onslaught of fake news coverage, with many implementing laws to punish culprits.
However, news dissemination on Chinese social media is already heavily controlled, with platforms like Twitter-like Weibo favouring topic hashtags produced by state media
