Top Ten Internet Rumors in 2016

　　"Buses, banking outlets, SF Express stores, etc. have become guardian points for children who have lost contact" "Those with an annual income of more than 120,000 yuan are high-income groups, and taxes should be increased" "‘ Gravitational wave ’ Causing cosmic rays, getting close to the mobile phone may cause casualties. ""Seedless grapes are grown with birth control pills "… … 2016 is about to pass. Do you still believe in these online rumors that have been rumored on the Internet for a while? On the occasion of bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year, China Internet Illegal and Bad Information Reporting Center screened out the top ten online rumors in 2016 according to the reports of netizens. Let’s crack them one by one, and don’t let these rumors continue to bluff in the new year.

　　1. Unable to bear the poverty of her boyfriend’s family, Shanghai girls fled the rural areas of Jiangxi.

　　Rumor: On February 6, 2016, a netizen who claimed to be a Shanghai girl posted that she went to her boyfriend’s house in rural Jiangxi for the first time for the New Year, and rushed back to Shanghai overnight because she couldn’t stand the poverty and backwardness in the countryside because of a New Year’s Eve dinner. This post provoked hot topics such as urban-rural differences and regional discrimination, and caused an uproar on the Internet.

　　Truth: The National Internet Information Office launched an investigation in conjunction with relevant departments, and Jiangxi Netcom Office publicly denied the rumor, confirming that this is a false news. The poster is not from Shanghai, but a netizen in jane doe, Jiangsu Province. Because of quarreling with her husband before the Spring Festival, she didn’t want to go to her husband’s hometown for the Spring Festival and stayed at home alone, so she posted a post to vent her emotions. The content was purely fictitious. This incident originated from personal anger, which was widely forwarded by netizens and widely reported by the media, and eventually became a public opinion event.

　　2. Buses, banking outlets, SF Express stores, etc. become guardian points for lost children.

　　Rumor: At the beginning of May, the circle of friends and Weibo circulated one after another that "from May 1, 380,000 employees in SF, including SF stores and hacker stores, will officially become the guardian station for lost children in China". In July and September, there were similar online rumors, such as "the bus became a guardian station for children who lost contact" and "the business office of China Bank became a guardian station for children who lost contact", which caused a large number of netizens to forward it.

　　Truth: Local police, bus groups, banking supervision departments, SF Express Company, etc. have refuted the statement that buses, China Bank outlets and express stores have become guardian stations for lost children, and reminded netizens that they should call the police as soon as possible if children are lost, so as not to affect the case investigation.

　　3. Internet rumors related to rain and flood, such as "the tap water will be turbid for two or three days after the rainstorm", "the government has decided to give up the rural areas to protect the city", "a place has burst its banks" and "the food supply of flood fighting officers and soldiers is insufficient"

　　Rumor: In July, there was a general rainstorm in the country, and the flood situation in many places was severe, and the task of flood control and disaster relief was arduous. However, some netizens deliberately distorted the facts and spread rumors, disrupting social order. Rumors such as "The tap water will be turbid for two or three days after the rainstorm", "The Tangxun Lake levee broke", "The government decided to give up the rural areas to protect the city", "The flood-fighting volunteers are urgently needed" and "the food supply of flood-fighting officers and soldiers is insufficient" have made the disaster worse.

　　Truth: In response to the above rumors, local network information, public security, water affairs, flood control and other departments launched rumors at the first time to ensure the smooth development of flood control and disaster relief work. At the critical moment of helping each other in the same boat to fight floods and provide disaster relief, we should screen online rumors more, and do not forward or spread information from unknown sources before it is released by authoritative departments, so that online rumors have no place to live.

　　4. "Most gas stations in Hangzhou will be closed during the G20 Summit", "The security police will subsidize 100,000 yuan each" and "the G20 Hangzhou Summit budget is 160 billion yuan" and other online rumors related to the G20 Summit.

　　Rumors: In mid-August, on the eve of the G20 Summit, social platforms such as friends circle and Weibo circulated that "Hangzhou can’t send express delivery during G20", "Express delivery containing liquid and powder can’t enter or leave within 300 kilometers around Hangzhou", "Most gas stations in Hangzhou city will be closed during G20 Summit", "The security police will subsidize 100,000 yuan each", "The budget of G20 Hangzhou Summit is 160 billion yuan" and "The West Lake Scenic Area is not allowed to cook with naked fire, and all will be distributed by the public security".

　　Truth: The relevant departments in Zhejiang Province and Hangzhou and the official WeChat "Zhejiang Publishing" of the Information Office of the Zhejiang Provincial Government have refuted the above rumors one by one. G20 Summit is a great event that attracts worldwide attention. Criminals take the opportunity to spread rumors in an attempt to disturb people’s hearts and public opinion. The reporting center reminds everyone to pay attention to the official news in time, and don’t believe the unreliable news.

　　5. The female pilot of the Air Force Bayi Air Show Team died unfortunately in flight training. The cause of the accident was "two show planes collided in the air" and "Yu Xu J -10 only flew for 80 hours".

　　Rumor: On November 12th, Yu Xu, a female pilot of the Air Force Bayi Air Show Team, died in flight training. In the early days of the accident, all kinds of speculative information were circulated, which led to many rumors, such as "two performance planes collided in the air" and "Yu Xu J -10 only flew for 80 hours".

　　Truth: The identification of flight accidents is a science. We should speak with facts and data, not rely on our heads to guess! According to many authoritative media reports later, the two performance planes did not collide in the air; Before Yu Xu’s unfortunate death, the total flight time of the J -10 was close to 500 hours, and the flight performance exceeded 300 hours. Regardless of technology or experience, Yu Xu has long been a rookie pilot.

　　6. Those with an annual income of more than 120,000 yuan are high-income groups, and taxes should be increased.

　　Rumor: On October 23rd, a news that "people with an annual income of more than 120,000 yuan are called high-income groups and need to increase taxes" was widely circulated in many WeChat official account and friends circle. In addition to dissatisfaction with the tax increase, the standard of "annual income of more than 120,000 yuan" also caused various complaints.

　　Truth: Experts from the Ministry of Finance and State Taxation Administration of The People’s Republic of China responded on October 24th that this view is purely a rumor. 120,000 yuan is not the boundary between high and low income groups, and there is no tax increase based on the annual income of 120,000 yuan.

　　7. Shock investigation of Chinese Academy of Sciences: The top 1000 college entrance examination students in 30 years ended in misery, and there was no industry leader.

　　Rumor: After the college entrance examination in 2016, a very old rumor appeared on the Internet with a sensational title: "Shock investigation of Chinese Academy of Sciences: the champion of the 1000 college entrance examination in 30 years came to a tragic end without an industry leader". It is claimed that after investigating 3,300 college entrance examination champions since the resumption of the college entrance examination, no one has become an industry leader. Sampling 100 scientists, 100 social activists, 100 entrepreneurs and 100 artists in China, it is found that there is no positive correlation between the achievements of others and school education except that the achievements of scientists have a certain relationship with school education.

　　Truth: On June 29th, the official Weibo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "Voice of the Chinese Academy of Sciences", once again denied the rumor: "The screenshot is untrue, and we have repeatedly denied it before." What’s more, the so-called "Central Academy of Science and Education" is called the Chinese Academy of Sciences. These so-called surveys have not published detailed data, and the statement that "the end is tragic" is even more illogical.

　　8. Internet rumors about smog, such as "More than 60 kinds of drug-resistant bacteria were detected in the smog in Beijing, and antibiotics were ineffective against them", "This smog was particularly deadly" and "Beijing smog under macro lens".

　　Rumor: In December, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong and other places encountered a wide range of fog and haze weather. "This smog contains ammonium sulfate, which can kill people", "Beijing smog photographed with a macro lens under 4000 lumens of light" and "More than 60 kinds of drug-resistant bacteria were detected in Beijing smog, and antibiotics were ineffective" and other online rumors surrounding smog also spread wildly. These rumors, disguised as popular science articles, only tell people some facts, but cover up more truths, which are alarmist and poisonous.

　　Truth: Experts from the National Health and Family Planning Commission, lasg official Weibo, Shell Network and other popular science institutions and experts have refuted the above rumors. Air pollution control is a long-term process, which needs scientific argumentation, and online rumors will only disturb people’s hearts.

　　9. "Gravitational waves" cause cosmic rays to get close to mobile phones, which may cause casualties.

　　Rumor: On February 16th, a rumor that "cosmic rays will pass close to the earth, which may be harmful to the health" went viral in WeChat circle of friends. The rumor said: "Please turn off your cell phone from 12: 30 this evening to 3: 30 this morning, and dangerous and highly radioactive cosmic rays will pass close to the earth. Therefore, don’t let your mobile phone get close to your body, which may cause casualties or damage. " On the 11th, American researchers announced that "the existence of gravitational waves has been detected", and many people confused the two, which made people feel uneasy for a while.

　　Truth: Zhang Fan, a professor of gravitational wave astronomy at Beijing Normal University, said that the rumor was "completely nonsense". Cosmic rays refer to a stream of charged particles with considerable energy from the universe, which is different from gravitational waves. "Gravitational waves detected" means that two black holes collided about 1.3 billion years ago, and the disturbance transmitted by the combination of two huge masses reached the earth on September 14, 2015 and was detected. China Telecom’s customer service staff said that such sensational rumors were suspected of fraud, and there had been many cases in which relatives and friends were defrauded of money because they were cheated to turn off their phones.

　　10. Seedless grapes are grown with birth control pills.

　　Rumor: In mid-August, a video alleging that seedless grapes were cultivated with birth control pills went viral in the circle of friends. In the video, a fruit vendor from an "unnamed fruit shop" talked with people in the car, saying that seedless grapes were "stained with birth control pills" and could not be given to children, which led to a large number of seedless grapes in Shandong that were unsalable and worried about the majority of fruit farmers.

　　Truth: In this regard, vineyard owners and agricultural experts all said that gibberellin is the most commonly used plant growth regulator in seedless grape cultivation, which has nothing to do with contraceptives and will not cause harm to human body. Experts from the Ministry of Agriculture said in an interview that the concentration of gibberellin used in grape cultivation is extremely low, and it takes two or three months from flowering to grape harvest, and the gibberellin previously sprayed has basically degraded.

　　Although these online rumors have been clarified one after another, it will take a long time to eliminate the interference to social order and the impact on people’s lives. The Reporting Center hereby reminds netizens that in the face of online rumors, they should think more rationally, vent less emotions, torture more seriously and forward less blindly. Only when more and more people actively participate in rumors, the firewall that blocks the spread of online rumors will become stronger and stronger.

　　In 2017, let’s work together to create a clearer cyberspace, welcome netizens to actively report online harmful information such as online rumors, and wish everyone a happy New Year!