The Korea Herald

피터빈트

China punishes social media, websites on coup talk

By 윤민식

Published : April 1, 2012 - 09:58

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China is closing a dozen websites, penalizing two popular social media sites and detaining six people for circulating rumors of a coup that rattled Beijing in the midst of its worst high-level political crisis in years.

The extensive clampdown, announced late Friday by state media, underscores the authoritarian government's anxieties over a public that is wired to the Internet and eager to discuss political events despite censorship and threats of punishment.

A Xinhua News Agency report said Beijing police questioned and admonished an unspecified number of Internet users and detained six people not further identified. Aside from the 16 websites shut down, two Twitter-like services run by Sina Corporation and Tencent Holdings, which each have more than 300 million users, said they would disable their comment functions for three days in a necessary ``concerted cleanup.''

Users of the services _ the most unfettered media in China _ received a notice when they tried to post comments explaining the suspension was due to the many ``rumors and such illegal, harmful information.'' Original postings are still allowed, and some used them to castigate the government.

``Every time you murder free speech, we all take note of your reaction. Your gradual loss of public credibility is the result of such messes,'' Wang Gongquan, a private equity executive, wrote on his Sina microblog account, which has 1.3 million followers.

Both the coup rumors and the crackdown show how the firing two weeks ago of Bo Xilai, the populist leader of the mega-city of Chongqing, has brought leadership struggles out of the usually closed confines of elite Communist Party politics and into the public.

Yet to be fully explained, Bo's dismissal came after a top aide fled temporarily to a U.S. consulate, apparently to seek asylum and in violation of party rules. It also came as the senior leadership gears up for a handover of power to a younger generation leaders in the fall, always an a period of intense bargaining.

Politically minded Chinese saw the removal of Bo, considered a contender for a top job only months ago, as a sign of divisive infighting. Speculation about Bo's fate and that of others ricocheted across microblogs and spiraled into talk of troop movements and gunshots around the leadership's Zhongnanhai compound in central Beijing on March 19.

The Internet sites and people punished fabricated and disseminated rumors that ``military vehicles are entering Beijing, something is going wrong in Beijing'' and similar posts, Xinhua said, citing the State Internet Information Office, an interagency body charged with policing the Internet.

Over the past week, President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders have tried to project an image of unity and reassert control over the public message. Censors have furiously blocked and unblocked a range of terms to quell errant microblog chatter; ``coup'' remained a banned search term Saturday.

``Internet rumors and lies packaged as 'facts' will turn conjecture into 'reality,' stir up trouble online and disturb people's minds,'' the party's flagship newspaper People's Daily said in a commentary accompanying the announcement of the clampdown. ``If allowed to run amok, they will seriously disrupt social order, affect social stability and harm social integrity.''

The Twitter-like microblogs, with their huge user numbers and rapid-fire postings, have proved a challenge for Beijing and its Internet monitors. Social media played a role in forcing the government to disclose more information after a crash on the showcase high-speed rail network last summer and to provide more information on the thick air pollution in Beijing and other cities.

A new rule requiring social media users to register accounts under their real names and identity card numbers by the middle of March failed to deter the rumors over Bo or a coup.

Following the detentions, shutdowns and other penalties, Pan Shiyi, a celebrity real estate developer and prolific microblog poster with 9 million followers, questioned Saturday whether the tactics were ``the right medicine'' to deal with rumors. Pan had not directly posted about a coup but had noted the heavy-handed censorship. To dispel rumors about himself, he said: ``I'm not among the six.'' (AP)

 

<관련 한글 기사>


‘반란 일어난다!’ 헛소문 유포자 체포


중국은 한 중화권  언론 에 게재됐던 내란설을 퍼트린 사람 6명을 구속하고 인터넷 사이트 16개를  폐쇄했다 고 신화통신이 31일 전했다.

또 주요 소셜네트워크서비스(SNS) 사이트인 시나 웨이보(weibo.com)와 큐큐닷컴(qq.com•騰迅)은 소문 확산을 막는다는 이유로 코멘트를 달 수 있는 기능을 31일부 터 다음달 3일까지 중단시켰다. 

중국 국가인터넷신식판공실(SIIO)은 이날 `meizhou.net', `xn528.com', `cndy.c om.cn' 등 일부 인터넷 사이트가 "군용 차량이 베이징에 진입했으며 베이징에서 뭔가 잘못된 일이 벌어지고 있다"는 조작된 루머를 퍼트렸다며 이같이 밝혔다.

SII0는 이 소문이 상당수 무법자에 의해 최근 조작된 것이라며 이 소문이 공중에 대단히 나쁜 영향을 미쳤다고 덧붙였다.

SIIO의 이런 발언은 처음으로 매체를 통해 공개된 `내란설'에 대한 중국 정부의 언급이다.

SIIO는 또 이런 조작된 소문이 중국판 트위터인 웨이보(微博)를 운영하는 대표적 업체인 시나 웨이보와 큐큐닷컴에도 등장했다면 두 업체는 처벌을 받게 될 것이라고 밝혔다.

SIIO의 이같은 언급이 나오고 수시간이 지난 뒤 시나 웨이보와 큐큐닷컴은 31일부터 다음달 3일까지 나흘간 코멘트 기능을 중단하기로 결정했다고 발표했다.

큐큐닷컴은 온라인 공지를 통해 "마이크로블로그를 통해 소문이나 불법적이며 해로운 정보가 확산하면서 사회에 부정적인 영향을 주고 있고, (블로거들의) 코멘트 들에는 대량의 해로운 정보가 포함돼 있다"고 밝혔다.

베이징 경찰은 내란설을 조작하고 이를 웨이보를 통해 퍼트린 혐의로 6명을 체포했다.

베이징 경찰은 또 구체적인 수치를 공개하지 않은 채 소문을 퍼트린 여러 사람을 훈계하고 교육시켰다고 밝혔다.

중국의 이런 신속한 대처는 이 `내란설'이 불러온 파장에 대해 당국이 상당히 신경 쓰고 있다는 점을 보여주는 것으로 평가된다.

중국 공산당 기관지 인민일보는 31일자 논평 기사에서 "잘못된 온라인 루머는 대중의 도덕심을 훼손하며 통제권 밖으로 벗어날 경우 공공질서와 사회안정을 심각하게 해치게 된다"며 헛소문을 조작하고 퍼트린 사람은 법에 따라 처벌해야 한다고 강조했다. (연합뉴스)