Chinese internet giant Tencent disciplined over ‘furious’ Xi headline error

The online news department of mainland internet giant Tencent has been disciplined over an error in a headline referring to President Xi Jinping, three sources confirmed on Thursday.

Instead of saying Xi “delivered an important speech” on the Communist Party’s 95th anniversary on July 1, the headline said Xi gave “an important speech in a furious ­manner”. The characters have similar pronunciation and the switch was believed to be the ­result of a computer input error.

Sources said oversight of the news department would be changed from the Cyberspace ­Administration of China’s branch in Shenzhen to its operations in Beijing, which have responsibility for monitoring most of the mainland’s national news portals.

The news site’s broad reach prompted propaganda authorities to launch an investigation into the mix-up, triggering a series of emergency meetings at the ­technology company.

The fate of the news department’s chief editor, Wang Yongzhi, was unclear.