Governments across Asia are stepping up arrests over a growing scourge of misinformation related to the coronavirus outbreak, even as outrage grows in China over how early virus whistleblowers were punished for spreading falsehoods after one of the doctors passed away.
Hong Kong police this week nabbed a part-time security guard at a shopping mall for allegedly writing on social media that multiple staff members had caught a fever and gone on sick leave. The messages "caused panic” and helped "breed paranoia”, police said in a statement on Facebook. The government separately blamed "evil” rumour mongers for fueling a run on goods at supermarkets such as toilet paper and rice.