Sina Weibo said it will alert Internet users of fake online information and improve its rumor-monitoring system.

Sina Weibo, the largest micro-blogging platform in China, established an online community for Internet users in 2012 to report rumors, the company said. The number of participants is now 20,000.

The committee, which includes anti-rumor and broadcasting professionals, has received about 11,380 reports of fake information and dealt with 11,358 of them, the company said.

Fabricated details, exaggerated facts, publishing old information and interpreting information out of context are common, said Mao Taotao, the Sina Weibo employee who is in charge of the committee.

"We also deal with cases in which someone issued totally fake information online or published photos that were not in accordance with their text," he said. "In addition, some incomplete information was also identified as fake."

The platform's anti-rumor team, established in 2010, has labeled fake information after confirmation and will inform other micro-bloggers with notices in the future, with the hope of purging rumors and warning more netizens at the same time, he said.

"We're also trying a rule to manage the community and improving our efficiency at handling rumors by cooperating with authorities," he added.

Cao Yin

(China Daily USA 08/22/2013 page4)