On January 7, 2016, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported that the Xinjiang branch of the Cyber Administration of China shut down a public Wechat (Weixin 微信) account for six days because of what it termed a “malicious headline.”
According to the report, the offending headline read “Major Accident Outside of Urumqi - 22 Dead, 5 Wounded” (乌市南郊出大事了——２２死５伤).
The actual content of the article was “A major traffic accident occurred outside of Urumqi, 22 sheep were killed and 5 sheep were injured” (乌市南郊发生交通事故，致２２只羊死亡，５只羊受伤).
According to the government, this discrepancy was a violation of the “Interim Rules on the Development and Administration of Instant Messaging Tools and Public Information Services” (即时通信工具公众信息服务发展管理暂行规定).
Misreporting traffic accident fatalities is a jailable offense in China. For example, according to a report in the state sponsored Southern Metropolis Daily, in August 2013, the Wudangshan public security bureau subjected a Mr. Xue to five days administrative detention because he had published posts with "rumors," claiming seven people had died in a car accident, when in fact only three people had died.
According to the report, the offending headline read “Major Accident Outside of Urumqi - 22 Dead, 5 Wounded” (乌市南郊出大事了——２２死５伤).
The actual content of the article was “A major traffic accident occurred outside of Urumqi, 22 sheep were killed and 5 sheep were injured” (乌市南郊发生交通事故，致２２只羊死亡，５只羊受伤).
According to the government, this discrepancy was a violation of the “Interim Rules on the Development and Administration of Instant Messaging Tools and Public Information Services” (即时通信工具公众信息服务发展管理暂行规定).
Misreporting traffic accident fatalities is a jailable offense in China. For example, according to a report in the state sponsored Southern Metropolis Daily, in August 2013, the Wudangshan public security bureau subjected a Mr. Xue to five days administrative detention because he had published posts with "rumors," claiming seven people had died in a car accident, when in fact only three people had died.
