In search of truth on the Internet

The Alliance to Bust Rumors was organized in May by a group of ordinary Internet users who wanted to get to the truth of stories that appear on the Net. The group defines itself as a "self-disciplinary Internet user organization in an era of individual media".

In less than three months, the alliance has busted more than 120 rumors. These range from stories of young girls working as prostitutes in the Sichuan earthquake zone to "drug attacks" on the Beijing subway to "Guo Yao", who pretended to be related to the victim of the Wenzhou train crash.

The alliance has more than 60,000 followers, but its rumor-busters have endured abusive criticism and suffered personal attacks from Internet users, and the alliance has been accused of only busting rumors and falsehoods created by ordinary people and not officials.