As part of the crackdown on “rumors” in the wake of the Bo Xilai scandal, Sina Weibo announced a move to close individual accounts that it accused of spreading fabricated news. Among those closed is the account of Li Delin, who posted information about a rumored coup in Beijing, and who has since reportedly disappeared. From AFP:
Chinese Internet giant Sina said late Tuesday it had closed down four “weibo” accounts, China’s equivalent to Twitter, including one held by the writer Li Delin, whose postings about military vehicles in Beijing sparked the coup rumours.
A posting by a friend on Wednesday claimed Li had disappeared.
“Recently, some lawbreakers have made use of weibo to without reason fabricate and spread malicious political rumours, producing a bad influence on society,” Sina said in an announcement to its more than 300 million users.
It added the four cases had been handed over to the police for handling “under the law”.
On his Twitter account, Bill Bishop reposted the original statement from Sina:
“近期，一些不法分子利用新浪微博在互联网上无端编造、传播恶性政治谣言，产生了恶劣的社会影响，现已被公安机关依法予以处理，传播谣言的微博账号”李德林”、”阳光的元士”、”广州巫冠聪”和”龙逸天-945″已被关闭。在此，新浪微博呼吁广大网民自觉遵守法律法规，不传谣，不信谣”
— Bill Bishop (@niubi) April 24, 2012
[Translation by CDT: Recently, some lawbreakers have used Sina Weibo to fabricate and spread political rumors, creating a negative impact on society. Public security has already dealt with this according to law. Accounts of “Li Delin,” “Yangguang de Yuanshi,” “Guangzhou Wuguancong,” and “Long Yi Tian -945″ have already been closed. Now, Sina Weibo calls on Internet users to consciously comply with the law and regulations, and to not spread or believe rumors.”]
