China Attempts to Ban Internet Rumors

Yep, the Chinese government has really got fed up with all those rumors on the Internet, and has decided to ban them. Well, they have released a paper on how to fight rumors, and this comes about a week after they punished China's two largest Twitter-clone sites, Sina and Tencent for spreading rumors. It's not clear what the punishment was, but all comments have been banned for now. I guess those rumors about a coup d'etat in Beijing hit a little close to home. Nervous much?

I'm sure that attempting to ban rumors on the Internet is gonna work great. Right after they succeed at that maybe they can get rid of spam, too. I don't think I'll be holding my breath waiting for their success.

I'm not sure what connection this has to games, except to note that Tencent, one of the punished companies, is also a major game company (remember, they bought Riot Games last year). No word on whether this may affect their game operations.

It does make you wonder, though, about in-game chatting in the hugely popular Chinese MMO's... since any of these attempts to ban rumors wouldn't affect in-game chatting. So gamers may be the first to know things, unless the Chinese government wants to contemplate shutting down the Chinese game industry. Now, that might really spark a coup d'etat...