HONG KONG (SCMP): A man from southwest China has been detained for spreading rumours after he posted a badly manipulated image of a snake on social media and claimed it was a dragon that might have caused last month’s deadly earthquake in Sichuan province.

Police in Yibin, where 13 people were killed by a magnitude 6 quake that struck on June 17, said the 50-year-old suspect, identified only as Zhang, was taken into custody on Wednesday in Chongqing, which neighbours Sichuan.

His detention, the term of which was not specified, came after a task force was set up to investigate the rumour that had “drawn much attention and caused huge panic”, police said in a statement on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.

Zhang uploaded the image, which appears to show a huge snake emerging from a hillside, as hundreds of people casually look on, to Weibo last week.

The caption with the image read: “A 120-metre [390-foot] giant dragon with a diameter of 1.5 metres jumped out of the water this afternoon, attracting thousands of people.

“Experts have flown here and it’s said the dragon had something to do with the earthquake.”



https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/art...nds-chinese-man

orang kampong mudah ditipu

China supporters say must punish those who spread fake news.

still got people believe it? aint that shit

wowowowowow

Like that also butt hurt meh?

Re-education camp awaiting........

Errr..... that is a joke rather than fake news.

Are you telling me that people actually believe that statement?

like this also can

it also means hongkie cannot make jokes in the future anymore

5 cents cant rebuke this a fake news reporting a fake news. scmp owned by ma yun

fixed

well, i really thought that picture was real

Lolwut?

Lol... chinese government is not amused even though about zero people believed it.

ask those ppl in kampung, see they believe or not

malaysia bila lagi?

I think people have to differentiate between a joke and fake news.

now u know why hongkies die die wan protest the extradition bill, cos they will kena the same thing oso in the future if the bill is passed

Wtf...

First I think the guy who edited the photo is sohai, coz too fake.

Then actually got peoples fucking believe, sohainess meter to the max.

Until the guy arrested, OK I am done, no internet for today.

So there is a jail time for trolls.... Let's send ajibkor there...