China tells Alibaba, Baidu cloud units to better prevent telecoms fraud

China’s industry ministry on Tuesday said its cyberspace administration and police had summoned the cloud units of Alibaba and Baidu Inc to urge them to better prevent telecom network fraud.

Both tech giants’ cloud platforms were found to have allowed access to fraudulent websites, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service.

The statement comes amid a sweeping regulatory crackdown in China whose targets have included the sprawling tech sector and which has dented the market capitalisation of some of the country’s largest companies, such as Alibaba.

China is building its own state-backed cloud system, while President Xi Jinping in April said the country would resolutely crack down on telecom and internet fraud.

Alibaba and Baidu are required to “earnestly fulfil their main responsibilities for network and information security,” the industry ministry statement said.

The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters