In September 2026, online rumors mainly focused on people's livelihood policies, natural disasters, social hot spots and other fields. These rumors may misinterpret people's livelihood policies, mislead the public's understanding, and create anxiety; they may exaggerate the disaster situation and interfere with the order of flood and disaster prevention work; or they may use AI technology to fabricate false events and consume public trust. The cyberspace, public security and other departments continue to strengthen coordination, promptly verify and clarify false information, and severely crack down on rumor-mongering in accordance with the law.
Misinterpret people's livelihood policies and mislead the public. Rumors such as "The Ministry of Civil Affairs launched the 'Guosheng Min'an' pension subsidy project to benefit the people" and "Hunan Medical Insurance can apply for secondary reimbursement" are so-called policies fabricated by criminals for the purpose of committing fraud. Such rumors take advantage of the public's concern about pensions, medical insurance and other welfare policies to set traps, which can easily cause the elderly group to suffer property losses. The statement spread online that "exit abroad will be comprehensively tightened and it will become more difficult for ordinary people to leave the country" is a misunderstanding of the revised laws and regulations. The new regulations are not to restrict the travel of ordinary people, but to preemptively discourage high-risk destinations and abnormal travelers. In addition, September coincides with the beginning of the school season, and education-related rumors are also frequently spreading. "Major adjustments to Xinjiang's 2027 high school entrance examination subjects and scores" spread online are typical education-related rumors, which can easily cause anxiety among parents and disrupt normal education order.
Fabricating disaster dangers and interfering with flood and disaster prevention. Many places experienced heavy rainfall in September, which gave rise to rumors involving geological disasters and water conservancy projects. The video posted on the Internet that "heavy rainfall caused multiple mudslides and landslides in Beichuan and blocked roads" was actually a spliced video clip; "The flood control embankment section in Suichuan, Jiangxi Province burst, and a dam at Wan'an Power Station was washed away by floods" and other information were deliberately concocted by individual netizens to take advantage of the disaster to gain traffic. Such rumors fabricate and exaggerate the disaster situation, interfere with the overall flood prevention and relief work, disrupt grassroots emergency response work, and mislead the public in risk avoidance decisions. The harm cannot be underestimated.
Fabricating social events and consuming public trust. Some rumors hype social hot spots and deliberately fabricate conflict plots to gain attention and harvest traffic. False rumors such as "I was threatened after I stopped funding students", "delivery workers spit on food" and "interns spit in flower cakes" are all deliberately fabricated to undermine public trust and smear the image of the industry; the false video "Jiangsu car owner sends his daughter to Harbin Institute of Technology" is an individual netizen who uses AI technology to forge and synthesize license plate numbers, banners and other false information in order to hype up the topic, to attract attention and confuse the public.
Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China organized the second phase of the special action of "Cleaning Up and Censoring AI Application Chaos", focusing on prominent issues such as the use of AI to produce and publish false information, spread violent and vulgar content, impersonate others, and infringe on the rights of minors, and carry out special rectification. We will carry out in-depth the special campaign of "Clearing and optimizing the business network environment and combating malicious speculation of enterprise-related information" to focus on rectifying and rectifying illegal activities such as slandering and slandering enterprises, collecting and hyping negative information, making profits through supervision, and inciting group opposition. Strictly deal with a number of accounts that spread false information about enterprises and instigate opposition among consumer groups. The public security organs crack down on rumors and rumors in accordance with the law, and deal with those responsible for false information in accordance with the law, such as "a student was threatened after stopping funding" and "a company's Yibin base monitor did not let ordinary workers go to the toilet", etc., effectively deterring rumors.
