China’s media regulator has ordered news-aggregating platform Jinri Toutiao to rectify its search engine after it displayed information that supposedly defamed a revolutionary martyr.

In a statement Monday, the Beijing office of the Cyberspace Administration of China said the company must “clean up” its search engine for displaying “slanderous information” involving the civil war hero Fang Zhimin. A Toutiao representative quoted in the statement said the company would “overhaul” the search engine over time.

According to Chinese media reports, Fang’s grandson had condemned Jinri Toutiao last month after coming across information that allegedly defamed their renowned ancestor while using the platform’s search engine. Jinri Toutiao in August launched the in-app search function, which returns results from apps under its parent company, ByteDance, as well as from the wider Chinese internet.

Regulators have demonstrated an urgent need to protect the reputations of the country’s martyrs. A new national law protecting “heroes and martyrs” came into effect last May, which stipulates that defaming or denying the deeds of China’s revolutionary heroes could potentially be a criminal offense. (Image: VCG)