China is tightening its already-strict censorship policies. Microblogging and instant messaging are the latest forms of communication that the Chinese government is cracking down on. The new communiqués come in the wake of July’s high-speed-rail crash, when scores of Chinese took to the Internet and voiced outrage at the government for trying to shift focus from why to the train crashed to rescue efforts.
Communiqués are a way for senior leaders to stress their priorities. ‘Strengthen guidance and administration of social internet services and instant communications tools, and regulate the orderly dissemination of information,’ said the document, carried in the official People’s Daily newspaper and by the state news agency Xinhua. ‘Apply the law to sternly punish the dissemination of harmful information.’
There’s no official word on what will happen to people who don’t abide, in fact the directive is a little vague (perhaps intentionally). For now it’s a warning.
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