China erases over nine thousand social media accounts of independent news providers

China's top cyber authority has scrubbed 9,800 social media accounts of independent news providers deemed to have posted sensational, vulgar or politically harmful content on the Internet, it said late on Monday.

China's strict online censorship rules have tightened in recent years with new legislation to restrict media outlets, surveillance measures for media sites and rolling campaigns to remove content deemed unacceptable.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement that the campaign, launched on Oct. 20, had erased the accounts for violations that included “spreading politically harmful information, maliciously falsifying (Chinese Communist) party history, slandering heroes and defaming the nation's image.”

CAC also summoned social media giants, including Tencent's Wechat and Sina-owned Weibo, warning them against failing to prevent “uncivilized growth” and “all kinds of chaos” among independent media on their platforms.

Online commentators noted that some of the accounts closed had been sharing false or pornographic content - both of which are illegal in China - but also lamented that some of the accounts targeted in this latest sweep appeared to have merely been too critical.