Wedding guard rumour lands two in detention in China

Dec 12, 2011 |

Reuters

Beijing

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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 said on Monday, 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 were seen guarding a wedding convoy, 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 the country's booming microblogs, called ‘weibo’ in Chinese, and their potential to tear at the seams of censorship and controls.

China has repeatedly criticized microblogs for irresponsibility in spreading what it calls unfounded rumours.

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