China’s legendary stranglehold on information strikes again today as reports are coming out that China’s internet censorship body has warned online media operating within the country to not use stories found on social networks as the basis of news reports without first asking permission from the authorities.
The South China Morning Post has reported that the Cyberspace Administration of China has stated that “no website is allowed to report public news without specifying sources, or report news that quotes untrue origins.” South China Morning Post further quoted Xinhua as saying “all websites should bear the key responsibility to further streamline the course of reporting and publishing of news, and set up a sound internal monitoring mechanism among all mobile new portals [and social media chat websites] Weibo or WeChat.”
And just to show that the Chinese government is enforcing this rule strictly, there are reports that the central online censorship body has ordered its regional offices to increase supervision and to “severely punish fake news or news that deviated from the facts.”
Source: Ars Technica, South China Morning Post