Chinese authorities shut 16 Web sites and detained six people accused of spreading rumours of unusual military vehicle movements in Beijing, state media reported, after the political downfall of one of the ruling communist party's senior leaders.
Authorities closed the Web sites for spreading rumours of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing," Xinhua news agency said late on Friday, citing a spokesman with the State Internet Information Office (SIIO).
The spokesman said that two popular micro-blogging sites had also been "criticised and punished accordingly".
The 15 March ouster of Bo Xilai as party chief of the inland city of Chongqing, who was linked to a scandal involving a senior aide, has shaken China's Communist Party as it readies for a top leadership change later this year.
After Bo was sacked, popular micro-blogs, including those run by Sina and Tencent, were awash with speculation about a government coup.
Sina and Tencent shut the comment functions on their popular micro-blogging sites from 31 March to 3 April to "clean up rumours and other illegal information spreading" through the site, Xinhua said.
On Saturday, Sina's Weibo users could still make posts, though other users could not respond.
Beijing-based microbloggers had previously been ordered to register their real names by mid-March or face unspecified legal consequences.
Many users fear Internet restrictions like those for Beijing and other regions are aimed at muzzling often raucous, and perhaps most significantly, anonymous, online chat in a country where the Internet offers a rare opportunity for open discussion.
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