Spreading fake stories online is now a major crime in China

China’s latest attempt to control what’s said on the Internet comes in the form of an amendment to the government’s criminal law, which makes it illegal to circulate false stories on the Internet. As always, China is claiming that these new rules are there to protect civilians, but in realty, that’s just the excuse the country is using to give itself the power to throw people in jail for as long as seven years for spreading information that China deems to be false.