Consequent on the rumours that there is a sort of Political upheaval in Beijing, which I have reported earlier, China has now fired a warning shot to netizens by forcing the microblogging service providers to disable comments by readers.
But no news of the political trauma is emerging. as of now.
Refers to:
BEIJING—The Chinese government fired a warning shot at the country’s Internet industry over the weekend, in an apparent effort to beat back the rumors that have filled an information vacuum following the ouster of former Communist Party highflier Bo Xilai.
The crackdown—involving temporary limits on popular microblogging services as well as the detention of six individuals accused of spreading rumors of a coup last month—shows the government may be try to reclaim its hold on political conversation in China.
The coup rumors appear to have put Beijing on the defensive, forcing top leaders at the center of the speculation to appear before the cameras, and to acknowledge the existence of the rumors through official channels.
The microblogging services—known asweiboin Chinese—of Sina Corp.SINA -2.10% and Tencent Holdings Ltd.0700.HK +2.86% said in identical notices on their websites Saturday that they were shutting down users’ ability to comment on other users’ posts until 8 a.m. Tuesday as part of “a centralized cleanup” because there has been “lots of harmful illegal information among the comments on weibo.”
A Sina representative said the company’s move was in response to a growing number of rumors but not a specific event. Tencent declined to comment beyond the notice on its website.
The state-run Xinhua news agency called the measures a punishment for the companies for allowing the rumors to appear, “resulting in adverse impact.”
Xiao Qiang, a scholar of the Chinese Internet at the University of California, Berkeley, said the moves show online discussion is hitting closer to home for the Communist Party than in years past, when authorities used censorship to quash discussions about issues such as democracy or Tibetan independence. Now “it’s about internal politics,” he said. The crackdown is “a public acknowledgment of their insecurity about online public opinion.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304750404577317370715019592.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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