A 29-year-old woman, identified by her surname He, has been accused of “maliciously fabricating information and openly slandering others,” according to a statement by the Public Security Bureau of Beijing’s Daxing district, posted on the Weibo platform on Tuesday.
The statement did not specify which athletes and coaches were targeted, and the investigation is still ongoing, as per the police.
The arrest occurred following the women’s singles table tennis finals in Paris on Sunday, police reported.
In that match, Chen Meng won gold in an all-China contest against Sun Yingsha.
While Sun received enthusiastic cheers from the spectators, Chen faced boos from the crowd and online abuse.
China’s Ministry of Public Security, referring to the match, vowed on Wednesday to “severely crack down on chaotic sport-related ‘fan circles'”.
The ministry’s statement, reported by state media, urged fans to “watch the game in a civilized manner, discuss objectively, and respect coaches, athletes, and judges”.
Weibo announced on Sunday that it had deleted over 12,000 posts and banned more than 300 accounts in response to the incident.
The platform urged users to “keep their focus on the court and comment rationally”.
Among the deleted posts were those attacking Chen, according to Freeweibo, a website that monitors comments removed by the platform.
One post criticizing Chen read, “The whole country was hoping for Sun Yingsha to win the women’s singles gold, where’s your sense of justice?”
Some posts showing a Sun fan in Paris seemingly raising their middle finger towards Chen were also removed.
The hashtag “Don’t let fan culture erode Chinese table tennis” trended with over 200 million views on Weibo by Sunday.
Many other users condemned the behavior of fans in the stadium and expressed their support for Chen.
One comment noted, “Anyone uninformed would have thought Yingsha was playing against a foreign opponent.”
Weibo stated that before the Games, it had deleted 8,200 comments and blocked more than 500 accounts for “abusive and slanderous” comments about athletes, urging users to cheer for all those competing for China in Paris.
