BEIJING — China's cyberspace watchdog has launched a targeted campaign to combat fraudulent online traffic, irregular public-relations activities and fake social-media accounts.
The two-month campaign aims to tackle these interlinked issues, which infringe on the legal rights and interests of netizens, and disrupt the environment for public opinion and market order, according to a video conference of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission.
The conference specified efforts to address the manipulation of internet traffic to falsify statistics for online reviews, sales records, followers and rankings in the cultural, entertainment and commercial sectors.
It outlined efforts to tackle anomalous public-relations activities, including the dissemination of negative information to blackmail others and make profits, and the hyping-up and exploitation of trending topics for irregular marketing purposes.
It also urged steps to crack down on the recruitment and exploitation of fake social media accounts to tamper with online data, trending topics or comments, or to engage in smear campaigns.