Chinese authorities shut 16 websites and detained six people accused of spreading rumours of unusual military vehicle movements in Beijing, state media reported, after the political downfall of one of the ruling communist party's senior leaders.
Authorities closed the websites for spreading rumours of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing", Xinhua news agency said late yesterday, citing a spokesman with the State Internet Information Office (SIIO).
The spokesman said that two popular microblogging sites also had been "criticised and punished accordingly".
The March 15th ouster of Bo Xilai as party chief of the inland city of Chongqing, who was linked to a scandal involving a senior aide, has shaken China's Communist Party as it readies for a top leadership change later this year.
After Mr Bo was sacked, popular microblogs, including those run by Sin Corp and Tencent Holdings, were awash with speculation about a government coup.
Sina and Tencent shut the comment functions on their popular microblogging sites from March 31st to April 3rd to "clean up rumours and other illegal information spreading" through the site, Xinhua said.
Today, Sina's Weibo users could still make posts, though other users could not respond.
Beijing-based microbloggers had previously been ordered to register their real names by mid-March or face unspecified legal consequences.
Reuters
