A Beijing city regulation clamping down on people who send text messages that spread rumors or endanger public security is a threat to freedom of expression, a watchdog group said Monday.Chinese authorities commonly use vague charges to detain dissidents.

China Human Rights Defenders, an international network of activists and rights monitoring groups, said the recent regulation on text messages raises serious concerns over the restriction of freedom of expression in China. The group said in a statement that an average of 180 million text messages are sent every day and that text messaging has become one of the most important means of receiving information unavailable in the mainstream media.

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