AMONG the closed social media accounts in the cleanup operation, the most notable one belongs to Zhuo Wei, who is known as China’s No.1 paparazzo.

Zhuo has made a big name for himself over the past few years since he began giving up-to-date status reports on the private lives of Chinese celebrities includ-ing actress Zhang Ziyi’s love affair, direc-tor Zhang Yimo’s secret young wife and three children, and singer Faye Wong’s divorce.

He shot to fame in 2014 after revealing Chinese movie star Wen Zhang’s extra-marital affair with Yao Di, his co-star in hit television series, “Naked Marriage.” Recently, Zhuo also created a wave on Sina Weibo for revealing actress Bai Baihe was “secretly dating” and “fl irting”

with a young male model in Thailand. The “extramarital affair” soon dominated entertainment headlines.

Born in 1971, Zhuo described the place he grew up as a “slum” in Tianjin. Coming from a relatively poor family, he used to be a very shy and introverted person.

Before entering the media industry, he worked as a secretary in a factory and later in a cinema.

Always dreaming of becoming a jour-nalist, Zhuo fi nally seized the chance to work for a local Tianjin newspaper in 2000.

However, soon after he started out Zhuo discovered that general entertain-ment coverage held no challenge for him. Therefore, in 2003, he moved to Beijing and joined Big Star, one of the very fi rst tabloid-styled weekly magazines on the Chinese mainland. Here he discovered his talent and passion for professional paparazzi work. More importantly, it was there that he met his business part-ner Feng Ke, who has cooperated with Zhuo ever since.

At the beginning the two knew noth-ing about being a paparazzi and it often took them half a month to get a single bit of information. They were also easily caught by celebrities when attempting to photograph them.

But soon, Zhuo had his own working studio and his team had acquied exten-sive knowledge of celebrity license plate numbers, addresses, likes and dislikes, and even keeps track of birthdays.

Zhuo explains that there are two kinds of sources: paid informants such as waitresses and bartenders, and people involved in celebrity circles such as man-agers and agents.

“What the latter tell us most of the time are rumors. It’s our job to carry out an investigation,” he said. (SD-Agencies)

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SIXTY social media accounts will be shut down for disseminating commer-cial speculation, vulgar content and other reasons, according to a statement released by the Beijing Cyberspace Administration on Wednesday.

Seven social media platforms, includ-ing Sina Weibo, WeChat, Tecent and Baidu, provided the accounts, most of which dealt with celebrity gossip. Among the list is Zhuo Wei, dubbed as China’s No.1 paparazzo. Having 7 million follow-

ers before his Sina Weibo account was shut down, Zhuo is famous for revealing scandals in the Chinese entertainment circle.

Some of the other offenses listed by the administration included publishing fake information or releasing personal celebrity information to gain public attention. Some of the information had negative social impacts, it said.

Sina Weibo closed 19 accounts that fabricated rumors and damaged other

people’s reputation, the platform said in a statement. Other social media platforms also closed several paparazzi accounts.

The move came after the implementa-tion of China’s fi rst Cyber Security Law, which stipulates that any person and organization posting online content shall not disseminate violent, obscene or sexual information; create or dis-seminate false information to disrupt economic or social order; and infringe

60 Paparazzi social media accounts closed

Celebrity gossip, vulgarity, rumors among the reasons for shutdown

on the reputation, privacy, intellectual property or other lawful rights and interests of others.

The law also states that network operators should stop the transmission of prohibited information.

The Beijing administration said Inter-net service providers should increase their control of information released by users and immediately stop the spread of information deemed illegal.

The law will not infringe on privacy or restrict free speech online, the adminis-tration said, adding that it targets infor-mation made public by Internet users, not personal communications.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sina Weibo released a statement that social media is an important platform for communica-tions between celebrities and their fans. Accounts that spread rumors should be shut down to protect the rights of celebri-ties and Sina Weibo users, it said.

In April, Sina Weibo account Liuy-ishou posted an article saying that two actors — Li Yifeng and Yang Mi — had an extramarital affair. Li’s studio released a statement rejecting the rumor.

Although Liuyishou posted an apol-ogy, the article had been reposted more than 100,000 times and had damaged the public image of both Li and Yang, the statement said.

Many netizens applauded Sina Weibo’s move, decrying some accounts for spread-ing rumors and gaining profi t by hyping up scandals.

The People’s Daily published an article in May criticizing the hyping of celebrity gossip. It said that mass media should shoulder “social responsibility and guide society.” With regard to gossip, the mass media should give correct guidance instead of providing a platform for it, said the People’s Daily.

In 2013, judicial authorities said for the fi rst time that spreading rumors on the Internet could be punished as a crime of provoking trouble. But that has not deterred some from starting and spreading rumors.

“Some rumors not only disturb public order but undermine the core values of society,” said Qiao Xinsheng, professor of law at Wuhan-based Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. (SD-Agencies)

Zhuo Wei, China’s No.1 paparazzo