China restricts online news sites from sourcing stories on social media

China’s Internet censorship body has warned online media not to use stories found on social networks as the basis of news reports without first asking permission from the authorities. The Cyberspace Administration of China said: “It is forbidden to use hearsay to create news or use conjecture and imagination to distort the facts.”

According to a story in the South China Morning Post: “No website is allowed to report public news without specifying the sources, or report news that quotes untrue origins.”