Update | Chinese worried about more censorship as Xi Jinping heads new web security panel

News that Chinese President Xi Jinping will take charge of a new panel overseeing internet security and information technology development has sent a shiver down the spines of Chinese media practitioners and net users.

Many have expressed fears that the launch of such a high-level task force would deal another blow to press freedom which had already been suffering after Xi's administration tightened controls on the internet in recent months.

Liu Chun, a media executive with more than two million followers on Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, was among the first to have responded to the news.

"The spring of internet has arrived...and my spring has arrived," he announced in a cheerful message which many believed was intended as sarcasm.

Liu’s message was reposted over a thousand times, with many of his followers questioning the actual implications of such a steering group.