Man held in China for claiming to have links with IS

BEIJING: A 25-year-old man who claimed to be a member of the Islamic State in an attempt to increase his following on social media has been detained for "spreading rumours" by the police in South China's Guangdong Province.

The man surnamed Zhong will be detained by local police in Tangjia, Guangdong for five days for "fabricating false facts and spreading rumours online" in defiance of the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, state-run Global Times reported.

Zhong was taken in for questioning by police after the city's department of public security on September 12 found that he had identified himself on the Tieba online forum as a member of IS, the report said.

However, the official investigation found that Zhong had been working in Zhuhai since graduating college three years ago and had no record of criminal behaviour or overseas travel.

Police found no evidence of him being involved in planning terror attacks or having ever contacted IS.

According to police, the post in which he claimed to be a member of the IS and garnered more than 500 views was simply a way for him to get more attention.

Zhong has confessed to the crimes of which he was accused, the report said.

In July, an Internet user surnamed Wei from Anyang in Central China's Henan Province was detained for four days for spreading rumours about a non-existent flood and mass brawls involving hundreds of people out of personal anger, according to the Henan-based news portal dahe.com.

Rumourmongers can be sentenced to up to seven years of imprisonment for spreading fabricated information online, China Central Television reported in October 2015.