"Over 800 third party competent agencies have joined the fight against rumors to date. They have prevented rumors from spreading over 500 million times, published about 40 lists of rumors… and held accountable over 180,000 official accounts," the report said.
According to the report, over 19.7 million users have used a special application developed by WeChat's creators that is designed to discredit rumors that appear on the social network.
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In November, the Beijing police detained an individual who used the social network to spread fake news about the military's involvement in a child molestation case at a Beijing pre-school. The rumormonger later admitted to having fabricated the information.
The Chinese authorities recently adopted a series of documents instructing Chinese Internet companies and media to monitor the credibility of information being spread on the web.
