Tencent’s fake news debunkers reached nearly 300 million WeChat users last year

Popular fake news topics ranged from food safety and health care to stories about society. One of the most widely circulated rumours, a claim that onions can kill the flu virus, was shared over 400,000 times on the social media app, mainly among males aged 25 to 55, according to the report.

Tencent Holdings, operator of China’s biggest social media platform WeChat, said it reached almost 300 million people with its campaign to debunk fake news last year as Chinese regulators and private Internet companies continue their clean up of online content.

WeChat, the ubiquitous messaging and social media app with more than one billion users, partnered with 774 third-party organisations, including the police and China’s food and drug authority, to produce 3,994 articles debunking rumours in 2018, according to a report released by Tencent on Jan 21. The articles were read more than 1 billion times, reaching 295 million users.