Microblog sites punished after coup rumours
Mainland authorities clamped down on the country's two biggest social media websites yesterday, banning their 700 million users from commenting on microblog posts after rumours ran rife about a military coup in Beijing in the aftermath of the sacking of the former Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai.
The authorities also shut a dozen websites for spreading the rumours.
The action came a day after the authorities said six people had been detained for circulating coup rumours. The government also announced yesterday that it had arrested 1,065 people for posting other types of 'harmful information' online since mid-February.
The crackdown highlighted the anxieties of the authorities after a series of political dramas, including the attempted defection by the former Chongqing vice-mayor Wang Lijun and the subsequent downfall of Bo, once tipped as a top contender for a place on the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee.
Days after Bo was suddenly sacked, rumours surfaced of tanks in Beijing's streets, gunshots, and plans to stage a coup in the capital. The authorities dismissed the rumours, with Xinhua saying yesterday they were fabricated by 'some lawless people'. A People's Daily commentary said social stability would be disturbed if the rumours persisted.
Xinhua said 16 websites, including two major portals for Hakka and Chaozhou populations in Guangdong, were closed for spreading the rumours. An unspecified number of people were questioned and cautioned, and six were detained.
Sina and Tencent, the mainland's two biggest portals for Twitter-like microblogging services, were punished for having a large number of postings related to the rumours. The two companies, each with more than 300 million users, issued statements saying the comment function for blog postings was disabled from 8am yesterday to 8am on Tuesday for a necessary 'information clean-up'.
They said users could still post articles, and the comment function would be restored on Tuesday.
A Sina Weibo public relations officer, Mao Taotao, said the company would use the suspension to clean up inappropriate information.
A senior employee at a major microblog service said: 'It was a warning for operators. [The government] has already tracked down who spread the rumours.'
Wu Qiang, an internet analyst at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said the government would continue to tighten its grip on the internet. 'I wouldn't be surprised to see more controls in the next few months.'
Beijing-based independent political analyst Liu Junning said the disabling of the comment function was a new control tactic for the government in that it affected a large number of users.
'I am very upset and worried. The measure would further limit freedom of speech,' Liu said.
