China punishes popular social media and websites for coup rumors amid political scandal

By artappraiser on Sat, 03/31/2012 - 1:58am |

Associated Press, March 31, 2012

BEIJING — China is closing a dozen websites, penalizing two popular social media sites and detaining six people for circulating rumors of a coup that rattled Beijing in the midst of its worst high-level political crisis in years.

The extensive crackdown, announced late Friday by state media, underscores the authoritarian government’s anxieties over a public that is wired to the Internet and eager to discuss political events despite censorship and threats of punishment [....]

The punishments were meted out for fabricating and disseminating rumors that “military vehicles are entering Beijing, something is going wrong in Beijing” and similar posts, Xinhua said [....]

URL:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-punishes-popular-social-media-and-websites-for-coup-rumors-amid-political-scandal/2012/03/30/gIQAYRxPmS_story.html