The authorities in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have busted seven cases of individuals spreading extremist and illegal content online after tip-offs, part of their effort to clean up cyberspace, news portal news.ts.cn reported Monday.

The Xinjiang cyberspace administration office said suspects spread information online relating to terrorism, violence, religious extremism and separatism, as well as rumors, fake news, insults and defamatory statements, according to the report.

The office said that among the seven cases, two were related to pro-terrorist content, three to publicizing religious extremism, one to spreading fake reports of terrorism and the last one to a hostile attack on governmental measures of stabilization.

Three of the cases were discovered in December 2016, and the other four occurred in January 2017. Suspects involved are aged from 21 to 34.

The authorities have encouraged the public to report illegal online content to the police, listing several ways to contact with the police on the administration's website. It also said people who report illegal behavior online will be awarded.

Anyone who uses cellphones, the Internet, mobile storage devices or other media to disseminate terrorism or extremist thoughts will also be held accountable for terror crimes, according the local anti-terrorism regulation of Xinjiang.

Xinjiang adopted its own regulation based on China's Anti-Terrorism Law in 2016, giving detailed instructions on how to deal with terrorist activities.

The regulation requires the establishment of a three-tiered anti-terrorism mechanism comprised of agencies at the provincial, prefecture and city levels. It calls for coordinated efforts from police, armed police, the army and local militias in addition to health, civil affairs, publicity and telecommunication departments.