Twitter whitewash: Chinese officials pay £130 to have incriminating tweets wiped from Weibo Previously, anybody trying to search on Weibo for information about officials such as President Hu Jintao or his successor Xi Jinping, would get a simple message: "According to related laws and regulations, search results are not shown." Now, so-called "whitewashers" can erase an incriminating tweet on Weibo for £130, an embarrassing or negative post on an internet forum for £80, or an entire blog post or news story for £400, according to The Times. Companies accused of fraud, bogus accounting and pyramid selling have been known to pay more than £100,000 to have the web wiped clean of every last bad statement about them. Whilst some of the whitewashing is achieved by hacking, most appears to be arranged through a complex network of paid agents who include editors and managers at major internet companies. Raids on the offices of two Beijing-based internet whitewashers led to a string of detentions that ensnared corrupt officers working inside the police's internet supervision bureau. An employee from one of the whitewash companies told Chinese reporters that most of the clients were senior public security officials or local magistrates.