China is cracking down on fake news, closing more than 100,000 ‘fake’ social media accounts that purport to be from various media outlets and news journalists.
The mass crackdown was instigated by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) who said it has removed 107,000 of these fake accounts since April 6.
“(The CAC) will guide online platforms to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the majority of internet users to obtain authoritative and real news,” the regulator said, adding that it welcomes any tip-off of fake accounts.
The CAC says its mission is “comprehensively cleaning up illegal editing, reprinting, and processing false news and other information that disrupts the order of online dissemination, comprehensively investigate and deal with counterfeit “news anchors” and other illegal accounts, and resolutely guard the important barriers for the orderly dissemination of online news information.”
This is another layer of censorship — albeit a welcome one — in a country where the media is heavily controlled, including the banning of certain hashtags on Weibo that deal in subjects deemed sensitive by the government.
“Some use methods such as forging news studio scenes, imitating professional anchors to broadcast, and abusing AI virtual anchors to pretend to be authoritative news media and mislead the public with false ones,” the CAC explains.
“The method is to fabricate fake news related to hot issues such as social crimes and international current affairs, to stir up netizens’ emotions, gain attention, and attract traffic.”
