Photo: CFP

China's cyberspace regulator addressed more than 1.4 million pieces of rule-violating information and some 920,000 rule-violating accounts during a special campaign to crackdown on chaotic social media from March 10 to May 22, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced on Saturday. 

Among the 920,000 illegal accounts that had been punished, more than 66,600 accounts were shut down permanently, according to the CAC.

More than 34,300 accounts were punished for creating and spreading rumors linked to  trending topics, such as the disappearance and death of Hu Xinyu, a 15-year-old student in East China's Jiangxi Province, the CAC said.

The administration also dealt with nearly 830,000 imposter accounts covering governmental, media accounts or professional personnel, including nearly 55,000 fake Party and State institutes accounts, 12,800 fake military-related accounts,187,500 fake media accounts and another more than 443,500 teacher, lawyer and medical accounts where the operators lacked professional qualifications.    

There were also about 65,600 accounts punished for hyping current affairs topics or taking advantages of vulnerable groups such as the elderly,  juveniles and people with disabilities to gain and commercialize account traffic, the CAC noted.

In the future, the CAC will continue to address the disorderly online activity, enhance  supervision and maintaining strict management in order to safeguard a clean and healthy cyberspace, the administration said.

Global Times