China shuts down 100,000 fake news social media accounts

Over the past month, China's cyberspace regulator shut down more than 100,000 accounts that misrepresented news anchors and media agencies on the internet.

China's Cyberspace Administration (CAC) has launched a special campaign to clean up online information, targeting social media accounts that spread "fake news" and impersonate state-controlled media.

In the past six months, the regulator has deleted 107,000 accounts of counterfeit news units and news anchors and 835,000 pieces of fake news information.

As China and countries around the globe grapple with an onslaught of fake news coverage online, many have enacted laws to punish those responsible.

The Chinese social media landscape is already heavily controlled, with platforms like Weibo, which resembles Twitter, favoring hashtags produced by state media, while censoring hashtags on sensitive issues or incidents considered sensitive by Beijing.

In its review, the CAC found accounts that impersonated professional news presenters, falsified news studio scenes, and used artificial intelligence (AI) to create anchors in order to mislead the public.

On Monday, the CAC posted on its website a statement identifying fake news covering social incidents and international current affairs.

The Chinese government regularly orders sweeping measures to remove offensive language, inappropriate material, and material that could endanger the public.