Two men held for five days after uploading video of police around a wedding convoy as China increases internet scrutiny
Reuters in Beijing
guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 December 2011
Police in central China have detained two men for spreading a rumour online that thousands of police were called out to guard a wedding, state media reported, as the country increases scrutiny of the internet.
Police in the city of Changsha in Hunan province detained the two men after they said 5,000 police and 100 police vehicles had been seen guarding a wedding convoy, the state news agency Xinhua said.
The two men had uploaded a video clip showing crowds of police and the wedding convoy, Xinhua said, adding that the rumour had "spread quickly, with the video clip receiving large numbers of hits".
Police said, however, that the incident was a "coincidence, as the officers were returning from a training drill and happened to be passing the convoy at that particular moment", the report added.
Police have detained the two men "for a total of five days in accordance with relevant laws", Xinhua said.
The detention comes after a stream of warnings in state media that has shown Beijing is nervous about the internet, particularly a booming microblogging site called Weibo, and its potential to undermine censorship.
China has repeatedly criticised microblogs for irresponsibility in spreading what it calls unfounded rumours.
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