BEIJING
Chinese authorities have handed out punishments for more than 190 people for spreading rumors about key issues including stock market troubles and fatal explosions at a warehouse storing chemicals.
State news agency Xinhua reported Monday that a statement from the Ministry of Public Security said that the 197 people involved had expressed repentance for their Inline activity that "caused panic, misled the public and resulted in disorders in stock market or society."
A total of 165 online accounts were shut down as part of the campaign.
The rumors that led to punishments include that at least 1,300 people died in the Aug. 12 Tianjin blasts that claimed 150 lives according to the official death toll and that a man in Beijing jumped to his death amid stock market woes.
Some allegedly seditious claims about China's commemorations next month of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II also accounted for the charges.
