Official Beijing Weibo Accused of Spreading Rumors Online

It's become pretty apparent in the last few weeks that news makers in China have but the shakiest of grips on reality.  Since the sweeping arrests of several online rumor mongers and Black PR account holders, citizens have been encouraged to report false news reports and unabashed gossip wherever they see it.

Unfortunately, when bad news reporting and a zero-tolerance policy for online gossiping collide, officials often get caught with their pants down.

Green Beijing, a Weibo account that the Beijing Muncipal Government uses as it's main propaganda presence in the hectic world of Chinese microblogging scored big over the weekend as published a photo of fearless Beijing police officers busting a prostitute ring consisting of no less that 31 hookers.

Except that they didn't.  The photo was taken from a CDC story that was published in 2006, and apparently made an impression on a number of Weibo users, who subsequently called for the operator of the account to be arrested for spreading fake news on the Internet.



 

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