China scours social media, erases thousands of accounts

A picture illustration shows icons of WeChat and Weibo app in Beijing, December 5, 2013. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/Files

BEIJING: 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 Nov 12.

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.