China: Coup romours prompt online clean-up campaign

The Chinese government has initiated a major campaign to clean-up fabricated online information spread on major Twitter-like microblogs after rumours stirred up worries about a possible coup recently.

A report by Xinhua news agency said a clean up operation is necessary but making microblog operations more transparent is the long term solution to prevent recurrence of such an episode.

The rumours' rise should act as a warning to China's government as well as to Internet users home and abroad that online information, without supervision and regulation, can make truth and reality hard to differ, it said.

Some Internet users who unconsciously forwarded these rumours provided a platform for disinformation to spread and be believed, confusing and unnecessarily panicking the public, it said.

It is quite effective for the government to take temporary and makeshift measures to clean up the rumour mill. But what is more effective and lasting is to make microblogs' operations more transparent for the public, it said.

The spread of online rumours is directly related to people's anxiety at a time when China's society is changing fast and reform has run into obstacles.

Anxiety on the country's social and economic issues can only be fuelled by online gossip in which the creators' origins and identities are often concealed.

Thus, besides cracking down on illegalities seen online and making the government more transparent, the basic social security system must be improved and social justice must prevail, it said.

The government should provide more channels for the public to make appeals and resolve social problems in time before discontent boils over, it suggested.

Giving people enough information and managing outlets for their voices will prove ever-more important in defusing tensions in modern society, it said.

On March 31, Chinese officials arrested 1,065 suspects, including six for spreading rumours of coup after the sacking of an influential Communist Party leader, closed down 16 websites and penalised two of the country's biggest microblog sites.

The t.qq.  com, run by Tencent and Weibo.Com resumed comment section after a four-day suspension ordered by the government.

The rumours were sparked of by reported infighting in the party leadership following the sacking of Bo Xilai, a hardline leader who became famous with his crackdown on mafia in Chongqing city.