BEIJING, April 2 (UPI) -- Two major Chinese microblogging sites said they have suspended their comment functions after being punished by the government for "fabricating" rumors.
The t.qq.com microblog, run by Tencent, and the weibo.com site posted online announcements Saturday saying they had decided to suspend comment function from March 31 to April 3 to clean up rumors and other illegal information spread through microblogging, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
Chinese authorities said they've closed 16 Web sites and detained six people responsible for "fabricating or disseminating online rumors."
The State Internet Information Office and Beijing police said the Web sites were closed for spreading rumors of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing."
The rumors were fabricated by lawless people recently, the authorities said.
Weibo.com and t.qq.com have been "criticized and punished accordingly" by the Internet information administration authorities for the rumors appearing on the sites, officials said.
