Photo: VCG

China's cybersecurity authority unveiled cases involving the fabrication and online spread of flood and disaster-related rumors on Monday. The cases included netizens fabricating misinformation using AI to garner attention, even extending to creating doctored official government advisories, China Central Television (CCTV) News reported.

A total of 15 typical cases were made public by the cyberspace authority under China's Ministry of Public Security, as part of a continued drive against illegal activities involving the creation and spread of disaster-related false information that disrupt social order.

Several of these rumors were crafted with AI tools. For instance, a 37-year-old male netizen based in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, doctored local official typhoon safety notices using AI, posting the manipulated versions on social media to garner views. The false posts drew widespread public discussion and impacted disaster relief operations.

A netizen surnamed Yang from Qingyuan, Guangdong Province, used AI to create false notices claiming local school closures, work and business shutdowns amid flooding, disseminating them via WeChat.

Two other netizens similarly utilized AI tools to generate and circulate similar instances of disinformation using Douyin, alleging that in one case a food-delivery courier was still required to complete 10 deliveries during the typhoon and was seen clinging to a utility pole as strong winds swept him off the ground.

All individuals implicated in these publicly disclosed cases have been subject to administrative penalties by local public security authorities in accordance with the law, CCTV reported

In addition, some netizens fabricated false information from scratch. For instance, one netizen invented a story claiming that a flash flood had killed over 100 people and that rescue efforts had failed, purely to gain online traction.

Others resorted to deceptive editing techniques, including one individual who clipped and spliced together footage downloaded from the internet that had no connection to the typhoon, falsely presenting it as "a person trapped on a tower crane during the typhoon" and posting it on social media.

These netizens have been issued administrative penalties by local public security authorities according to law.


Global Times