THREE people of a technology company in Longhua District were recently detained for allegedly fabricating and spreading a rumor online though its WeChat account.

    Shenzhen’s cyber police found a post Feb. 10 with a headline reading, “Why wasn’t there a casualty report about a bullet train collision on Jiaoji Railway in Shandong Province? Is there anyone covering the truth?” The company’s WeChat account uploaded a video showing two trains colliding and photos of a high-speed train collision.

    The WeChat account received more than 100,000 views in one day after the article was posted Feb. 9.

    The video was later confirmed to be of an accident that happened April 28, 2008, between trains T195 and 5034, and the photos were from a bullet train accident in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, in July 2011.

    An investigation showed that the information had been released by an Internet company in an office building in Dalang, Longhua District. The boss of the company, surnamed Luo, 25, a native of Guangdong Province, wanted to attract viewers and earn money through WeChat advertisements. At around 2 p.m. Feb. 9, a 26-year-old employee who is a native of Raoping surnamed Lian, made the rumor and circulated it to her WeChat friends. Luo then spread the rumor through the company’s public account and shared it with her WeChat friends and WeChat groups. The other suspect, a 31-year-old native of Chongqing identified as Wu, also circulated the rumor on WeChat.

    Lian was criminally detained, while Wu and Luo were administratively detained for 10 days and fined 500 yuan (US$72.82).

    (Han Ximin)