China’s Communist Youth League rules out launching Twitter account

China’s Communist Youth League (CCYL) slammed rumor which alleges that it has launched an official Twitter account, said currently it has no Twitter account at all.

Recently, rumors about the CCYL has opened a Twitter account, has gone viral on the Internet. The account, @ ccylchina, with 1,252 followers so far, was opened earlier this month, and published 15 tweets as of press time.

The message said the aim of the account was to “deliver information about the league and speak on issues of interest to young people”.

However, the CCYL does not have Twitter account currently and the CYL already asked Twitter to clear out these fake CYL accounts.

Apart from @ccylchina, there are also other Twitter accounts, including @ComYouthLeague, which claimed to be the official account of CCYL too.

According to a January regulation issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, all telecommunication vendors and Internet access service providers are barred from setting up or renting special lines including VPNs to carry out cross-border operations, unless authorities grant them an approval.

The CCYL gained rising popularity among young people after it enters popular channels of communication in recent years. In 2013, the CCYL opened a Sina Weibo account, with 5.14 million fans currently and an official WeChat account with 400,000 fans.

In early 2017, CCYL joined Bilibili, a video sharing website of anime, comics and games.

The CCYL, like other official organizations, is using comics and mobile games to engage with young people. It also invited boy band TFboys to be its ambassadors.