Internet giants investigated over content

Three Chinese internet giants - Tencent, Baidu and Sina - are under investigation for failing to regulate content such as posts that are violent, fake or pornographic on their online sites, the country's top cyberspace watchdog announced on Friday.

Public tips have alerted regulators to content posted by some users of Tencent WeChat, China's most popular instant messaging tool; Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like service; and Baidu Tieba, a popular online forum. Some of the content, including posts that are terrorism-related, harms national security and public order, according to a statement by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Cyberspace regulators in Beijing, where the headquarters of Baidu and Sina are located, and regulators in Guangdong, which has jurisdiction over Tencent, have filed an official probe of the three platforms for possible breaches of the Cybersecurity Law and failure to prevent such information from being released, the statement said.