China’s Cyberspace regulator disclosed that it deleted 1.4 million social media posts after a two-month probe into supposed misinformation, profiteering, and impersonation of state officials and other issues.
The CAC in a statement on Friday, revealed that as a part of a larger rectification campaign, it deleted 67,000 social media accounts and said 1.4 million posts between March 10 and May 22.
In an ongoing drive to purge cyberspace and to make it easier for authorities to control, China has targeted billions of social media accounts in 2021.
The latest crackdown campaign targeted accounts from popular social media platforms including WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo that are classified as “Self Media”, a term that refers to accounts that publish news and information that are not government-run or state-approved.
China detains citizens frequently and censors accounts for sharing information that is considered critical towards the Communist party, government, or the military.
According to CAC, out of the 67,000 accounts that were shut down permanently, around 8000 were pulled down for “spreading fake news, rumours, and harmful information”.
Recently, the regulator closed down 1,00,000 accounts that purportedly misrepresented news anchors and media houses and imitated professional news presenters, using artificial intelligence (AI) to mislead the public.
Further in the statement, CAC also asked the Citizens to monitor and report such events and activities on social media. “At the same time, (we) also call on the majority of netizens to actively participate in monitoring and reporting (illegal ‘self-media’), provide clues … and jointly maintain a clean cyberspace,” it added.
