Authorities ramp up crackdown on online rumors about financial markets

Cyberspace regulators in China have recently stepped up their efforts to crack down on rumors concerning financial markets and detain individuals who fabricate information on the markets for excitement or to mislead the public.

The Ministry of Public Security released a case on social media on Wednesday, saying that a man surnamed Wang in Sichuan province has been detained for editing a screenshot of a news report to spread rumors about the securities market.

Wang was accused of spreading the misinformation that "China is banning margin trading" by altering a screenshot of a news agency Reuters' page on X, formerly Twitter. The fabricated screenshot circulated on various domestic websites, forums, and social media platforms, the police said.

After noticing the misinformation, the cyberspace police department tracked down Wang and found that he had done it "due to his own speculation" and that he had "sought excitement" in spreading the misinformation that he had fabricated, according to the police. Wang was caught in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Wang's actions "severely disrupted the smooth operation of the securities market, misled investors and the public, and damaged the cyberspace environment", the police said, adding that Wang will face penalties according to relevant laws.

In a similar case, an investor in Gansu province was fined 200,000 yuan ($28,000) for changing the keywords of a news report and spreading it online.

The province's securities regulatory authorities revealed on Monday that the offender, also surnamed Wang, had replaced the words "iron ore" in a China News Service report in January with "soda ash", in the hope of creating an illusion that the market of the important industrial and household chemical substance will face more severe supervision.

Wang had posted the rumor in a renowned financial forum on Jan 13 before it was deleted by the site eight hours later after it garnered some 2,000 views, regulators said, adding that Wang had participated in deals of the soda ash futures on that day and had suffered a loss.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country's top cyberspace regulator, launched a three-month campaign to fight rumors online, in the hope of creating a clearer and healthier cyberspace environment. Cracked cases of online rumors were listed as exemplary cases for the campaign.