Photo: Screenshot of Sina Weibo's administration post

China's social media platform Sina Weibo has closed hundreds of accounts for publishing false social or political information amid the COVID-19 epidemic and regulated on self-media that published news without journalism qualifications.

According to Weibo's administration team, as of Wednesday, the platform has banned nearly 700 accounts that have fabricated or intentionally spread false information online, as well as more than 350 accounts that have tried to incite attacks and regional discrimination since the outbreak started.

Weibo announced it will continue to strictly manage social media accounts, as these accounts don't have qualifications for collecting and publishing news as requested by China's online publishing regulations.

WeChat, another Chinese social media platform, also enhanced the management of public accounts by deleting articles that post false and exaggerated information that is only aimed at grabbing readers' attention.

Specifically, the WeChat team removed 227 articles titled "XX (country or region) is eager to return to China" that carry identical content and banned 153 related public accounts, reported The Paper on Thursday.

Netizens and users expressed support for the platforms' management and regulation, slamming the accounts for having no bottom line in their pursuit of high numbers of views of their posts and articles.

"When online surfing is mixed with these cunning accounts' fabricated and false information, I feel like swimming in a river with junk floating on the surface," said one Weibo user.