China shuts down 100, 000 fake news social media accounts

According to China's cyberspace regulator, the country has stepped up efforts to rid the internet of misleading information and rumours. Over the past month, more than 100,000 online profiles that impersonate news anchors and media organisations have been closed.

With a special focus on social media accounts that spread "fake news" and pose as state-run media, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) initiated a drive to purge online material.

Since April 6, the regulator claimed to have deleted 107,000 accounts of fake news organisations, news anchors, and news stories, along with 835,000 individual fake news stories.

China and other nations are currently battling an online false news onslaught, with many enacting legislation to punish offenders. At the same time, the cleanup is underway.

Chinese social media platforms, including the Twitter-like Weibo, encourage topic hashtags created by state media while restricting hashtags on issues or situations deemed sensitive by Beijing, even if they go viral. As a result, news transmission on these channels is already strictly regulated.

According to the CAC, its investigation turned up accounts that had impersonated reputable news presenters and news studio settings while utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to generate fake anchors in order to mislead the audience.

According to a statement the CAC published on its website on Monday, prominent themes like social occurrences and global current affairs were covered by fake news outlets.

"(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 it encouraged users to provide leads on counterfeit news and anchors.

The Chinese government has frequently issued sweeping orders to purge the internet of content and language it deemed unpleasant, unsuitable, and dangerous for the general public and enterprises.

The CAC recently committed to taking down abusive internet remarks that harm firms' and entrepreneurs' reputations.

New generative AI technology, such as ChatGPT, has added layer of caution. A man was recently detained in China's Gansu region for allegedly fabricating a railway catastrophe story using ChatGPT.

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