China's top cyberspace regulator launches drive against capital market misinformation

China's top cyberspace regulator said on Friday that it has recently launched a campaign to crack down on online misinformation related to the capital market, releasing details of several accounts punished for "fabricating rumors and illegally recommending stocks."

The Cyberspace Administration of China said in a news release that the campaign was jointly initiated with the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Some penalized accounts were found to have spread false information about capital market regulatory policies, according to the release. For example, some accounts fabricated false initial public offering policies and concocted so-called exclusive disclosures and "inside information" without any factual basis.

Others were discovered to have "maliciously aggregated" negative information about listed companies and financial institutions, distorted publicly available corporate information, such as ownership structures and financial statements, damaged corporate reputations, and talked down companies' development prospects, the administration noted.

In addition, some accounts were found to have "long-term and frequent practices of using provocative or suggestive language to arbitrarily predict stock market movements" in an attempt to attract online traffic, the release said.

The regulator stressed that the capital market is highly sensitive to information, underlining that fabricating or disseminating false information and other illegal or improper content related to the capital market disrupts the order of information dissemination and undermines market stability, and will be punished in accordance with the law.

The release also urged internet users to enhance their ability to identify financial information and refrain from creating, spreading, or believing rumors.