A recent online post promising a reward of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) for the return of a lost dog has created a huge buzz across Chinese social media and prompted some keen netizens to join in the search. However, it turns out that the entire thing was a hoax story deliberately created by an influencer surnamed Yang to attract views. As a result, Yang was placed under a 15-day detention by the police.

This was not an isolated event but part of a wider circulation of disinformation on the Internet. The rise of social media has created entirely new channels for sharing information, whereby anyone can post about anything without the need to follow strict codes of practice. The lack of editorial standards has allowed fake news to spread and stay, which contributes to a widely shared sense of disbelief in all online content.

For this reason, stricter regulations should be put in place to keep online content creators within certain boundaries. Supervisory departments, digital platforms and individual netizens should all work in tandem to build a cleaner and safer cyberspace.

(Yanzhao Evening News, July 13)