Chinese websites commit to public supervision

More than 100 Chinese websites on Thursday publicized hotlines for public reports of online abuse and rumormongering, as authorities ramp up a drive to manage the Internet.

Gathered at a work conference, the heads of the 107 websites, including people.com.cn, xinhuanet.com, sina.com, baidu.com, also signed a letter of commitment, promising to deal in a timely manner with illegal information such as rumors, pornography and violent content.

In cases where web users maliciously spread such information, the websites will report them to law enforcement departments. They also welcome supervision from the public, they agreed.

Peng Bo, deputy director of the State Internet Information Office, said that 680,000 cases of illegal online information have been reported this year to net.china.com.cn, a website mainly for receiving tip-offs, and more than 800 informants have given rewards. Some 9,000 of the cases were related to violence and terrorism.

China has made a series of attempts to clean up cyberspace, including shutting down disagreeable accounts on Twitter-like Weibo and instant massaging platform WeChat.