Kinesiske ledere kalder informationsdeling via mikroblogs på internettet for en farlig ‘kræftsygdom’. De såkaldte ‘weibos’ er ulovlige men udbredte, og Kinas officielle nyhedsbureau advarer kineserne om, at de risikerer at ‘ødelægge internettets udvikling’, skriver Intellasia.net. Dette er blot det seneste af mange forsøg fra det kinesiske styres side på at generobre kontrollen med informationsstrømmen i Kina, der med 485 millioner internetbrugere er verdens største online-nation.
The Xinhua news agency’s call for an end to online “rumour-mongering” came days after a similar warning from a senior Communist Party official and reflects the government’s growing disquiet at the rapid rise of China’s micro-blogs.
“The Internet is an important carrier of social information, civilisation and progress. Rumours will harm the network and are a dangerous cancer,” Xinhua said in a commentary published only in Chinese.
“The reform of Internet technology has facilitated the rapid flood of information and communication but also has brought… serious cyber rumours, that harm the Internet’s development.
“To nurture a healthy Internet, we must eradicate the soil in which rumours grow.”
After a deadly train crash in July, Sina’s Weibo users sent millions of messages criticising the official response to the disaster, which killed 40 people and forced the government to halt the expansion of high-speed rail.
The scale of the response appeared to take authorities by surprise. Shortly after the accident, the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party, urged officials to use the weibos more to communicate with the public.
