BEIJING • China's online watchdog has launched an investigation into reports of multiple violations at news services run by Tencent Holdings, Baidu and Weibo, as the government continues to tighten scrutiny over Internet content.
The Cyberspace Administration of China said yesterday it has instructed its Beijing and Guangdong branches to look into reports that some of the country's largest online services are carrying user-generated content laden with "violence, terror, false rumours, pornography and other hazards to national security, public safety, social order", the regulator said on its website.
It did not specify what actions may be taken.
Baidu said it felt "deep regret" over the content and will "actively cooperate with government departments to rectify the issue and increase the intensity of auditing". Tencent and Weibo did not respond to requests for comment.
China has applied increasing pressure over Internet media in the run-up to an important Communist Party congress later this year that is expected to consolidate President Xi Jinping's authority.
Last month, Beijing scrubbed memorial photos of Dr Liu Xiaobo from WeChat and Weibo, after the long-imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate's death from cancer. Dr Liu was an author of Charter 08, which called for democracy in China.
The latest probe centres on three of the country's largest repositories of online musings: Tencent's WeChat messaging service, Weibo's Twitter-like blog and Baidu's Tieba forums.
WeChat and Weibo have about 940 million and 350 million monthly active users, respectively.
Last month, the cyber authorities called on the same companies to carry out immediate "cleaning and rectification" at a meeting with their representatives, where the authorities cited specific examples of illicit content, including rumours about party officials and misrepresenting Chinese military history.
Prior to the meeting, Weibo was ordered to partially close its video site over violations, wiping out a combined US$1.3 billion (S$1.8 billion) worth of stock between Weibo and parent company Sina Corp.
WeChat and Weibo are China's most popular social media platforms, and have thrived due to the absence of Western competitors like Facebook and Twitter, which are banned by the country's censors.
In recent months, regulators have taken severe and unprecedented action to shutter content and media across a variety of platforms. In May, it released regulations for online news sites and network portals that expanded curbs on content and required all services to be overseen by party-sanctioned editorial staff. It has taken down popular celebrity gossip social media accounts and there has also been a sweeping campaign to remove virtual private network apps that allow users to circumvent China's so-called "Great Firewall" and access foreign websites.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
