China to take down hurtful comments from website
8 March 2014 5:31 AM IST
Beijing police have told prominent users of the microblogging site Weibo to cease comments deemed hurtful, including suggestions that authorities misled the public with accounts of a deadly train station attack blamed on militants from Xinjiang.
The warning was issued late on Thursday in response to postings offering different interpretations of the attack by knife-weilding assailants in the southwestern city of Kunming. At least 29 people were killed and police shot dead four of the attackers.
China says militants from the far western region of Xinjiang, home to a large Muslim Uighur minority, carried out the attack.
Police said they were responding to complaints by netizens over bloggers’ criticisms of media portrayal of events.
‘One or two public intellectuals have shown scant regard for the facts, confused black and white. Their comments have hurt the people’s feelings, and (other users) hope the police will deal with this,’ the statement said.
The users whose comments were singled out were well-known commentators with thousands or even millions of followers. Screen shots of the offending posts were attached.
Li Chengpeng, a writer and former journalist with over seven million Weibo followers, had posted a quote attributed to a Kunming journalist frustrated at the lack of information about the attacks.
‘Never telling you what exactly happened, just letting you blindly hate and feel inexplicably afraid, that is living a confused life and dying understanding nothing,’ read the post, subsequently deleted.
The warning was issued late on Thursday in response to postings offering different interpretations of the attack by knife-weilding assailants in the southwestern city of Kunming. At least 29 people were killed and police shot dead four of the attackers.
China says militants from the far western region of Xinjiang, home to a large Muslim Uighur minority, carried out the attack.
Police said they were responding to complaints by netizens over bloggers’ criticisms of media portrayal of events.
‘One or two public intellectuals have shown scant regard for the facts, confused black and white. Their comments have hurt the people’s feelings, and (other users) hope the police will deal with this,’ the statement said.
The users whose comments were singled out were well-known commentators with thousands or even millions of followers. Screen shots of the offending posts were attached.
Li Chengpeng, a writer and former journalist with over seven million Weibo followers, had posted a quote attributed to a Kunming journalist frustrated at the lack of information about the attacks.
‘Never telling you what exactly happened, just letting you blindly hate and feel inexplicably afraid, that is living a confused life and dying understanding nothing,’ read the post, subsequently deleted.
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