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50 Websites Punished for Spreading Rumors about the Tianjin Explosion

People’s Daily reported that, according to the Office of National Internet Information, 50 websites were under investigation for “spreading rumors” about the explosion in Tianjin. The article said that those websites published web articles with contents such as that a minimum of 1,000 people died,” “no lives were found within 1 kilometer of the site of the explosion,” “Tianjin is in chaos; stores were being robbed,” and “the top leadership in Tianjin was being restructured.” The article claimed that some of them allow their users to upload “rumors from microblogs and WeChat” and have become the “harbor of the rumors.” “It has had a negative social impact.” The article said that 18 of those websites were ordered to be shut down permanently while the other 32 sites were to remain closed for one month.

Source: People’s Daily, August 15, 2015
http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2015/0815/c1001-27467538.html