Chinese Government Investigates Weibo, WeChat, Baidu for Spreading Terror

Chinese Government Investigates Weibo, WeChat, Baidu for Spreading Terror
Aug 14, 2017 Translated by eChinacities.com

China’s Cyberspace Administration said it has put Weibo, WeChat and Baidu under investigation for allowing users to spread obscenities, rumors and terror-related material.

The three media companies, which have hundreds of millions of active users each, are jeopardizing national security, according to the administration.

Source: Mike Licht

Users are "spreading violence, terror, false rumors, pornography and other hazards to national security, public safety, social order”, it is claimed.

Reuters reports that Baidu has already expressed “regret” over the allegations and promised to increase the intensity of its auditing and work closely with the government. There was, however, no immediate comment from WeChat or Weibo, the BBC reports.

Social media posts and web searches are easily traceable in China, and most internet users are careful what they put online.

However, it is believed the government is being particularly hard on “dissent” in the lead up to the Communist Party Congress this autumn.

Last month, dozens of popular celebrity gossip websites and social media accounts were shut down for corrupting China’s core socialist values. Now, all news sites must be managed by editorial staff who have been sanctioned by the Communist Party.

China is also currently clamping down of the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), at least 60 of which were recently removed from the China Apple Store.

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Keywords: social media china China internet censorship

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