China summons Quora-like Zhihu for unlawful release of information

BEIJING (Reuters) – The Beijing cyberspace regulator said on Monday that the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) had asked it to summon Zhihu for unlawful release of information, as Beijing steps up efforts to control and “clean up” the internet space.

The internet regulator said in a statement that authorities have demanded “immediate rectifications” from the company, and the online question and answer platform would suspend some functions during that period.

Zhihu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Regulators this month levied fines of 3 million yuan ($470,000) on Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, and 1.5 million yuan on social media platform Douban, for similar reasons. Douban suspended its reply function at the time.

Zhihu’s New York-listed shares are down more than 10% in pre-market trade.

($1=6.3764 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Yingzhi Yang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Toby Chopra)