More than 100,000 online profiles that misrepresented news anchors and media organizations have been closed in China over the course of the past month as part of its increased efforts to purge the internet of false information and rumors.
Cyberspace Administration of China, or CAC, started a special campaign to clean up online material, focusing on social media accounts that distribute “fake news” and imitate state-controlled media, according to an announcement made on Monday by its cyberspace regulator.
Since April 6, the regulator claimed to have deleted 835,000 pieces of fake news content and 107,000 accounts of fake news organizations and news personalities.
The cleanup takes place as China and other nations battle an internet false news onslaught, with many enacting legislation to punish offenders.
However, there is already strict regulation over how news is disseminated on Chinese social media, with platforms like the Twitter-like Weibo favoring topic hashtags created by state media.
While restricting hashtags on topics or events that Beijing considers sensitive, even if they become widely popular.
According to the CAC, its investigation turned up accounts that had impersonated reputable news presenters and news studio settings while utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to generate fake anchors in order to mislead the audience.
According to a statement the CAC previously on its website, fake news detected included popular areas like social crises and global current affairs.
“(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 that 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 take down on abusive internet remarks that harm firms and entrepreneurs’ reputations.
New generative AI technology, such as ChatGPT, has added an additional layer of caution.
A man was recently detained in China’s Gansu region for allegedly fabricating a railway catastrophe story using ChatGPT.
