Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 15 Sep 2022, 04:56 am Print
China Covid-19 Representational image by Sasha India on Flickr via Wikimedia Commons
Beijing: Police in the Xinjiang region of China have arrested four internet users and accused them of spreading rumours about an outbreak of Covid-19.
The four were ordered to serve between five and 10 days of administrative detention in Yining, a city in the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture, police said in a statement on Sunday, reports The South China Morning Post.
“[The detainees] spread rumours on the internet, incited antagonistic sentiments, disrupted the order of anti-pandemic measures, [which] resulted in negative social repercussions,” police said.
The statement did not disclose the ethnicity of the four individuals but they all had Han surnames.
Administrative detention is usually ordered for minor offences and does not involve formal charges or a trial. It requires only police approval but the duration is capped at 14 days.
China has been battling to control the COVID-19 outbreak.
- Software engineer quits Meta because he found his job 'boring’—now sells Hokkien Mee in Singapore
- Amsterdam goes hard on tourism with eye-catching 20 percent tax proposal
- Man ditches smartphone for flip phone and now he claims he is using his brain more
- Missing Mount Everest Sherpa found alive as family performs last rites at home
- Pakistan court upholds death penalty in 2020 motorway gang-rape case involving French-Pakistani woman
