Just two days after President Obama and the United States government hit Syria and Iran with new sanctions "to hold accountable those who assist in or enable such [human rights] abuses through the use of information and communications technology," China has now stepped up its online crackdown in the wake of a political scandal.

China has been embroiled in a massive political scandal involving Bo Xilai, a Chinese politician who had been seen as a rising star in the Chinese Communist Party prior to his abrupt downfall over obstruction of justice charges in a murder case involving his wife, as well as local political disputes. Last month, Bo was removed as party chief of the southwestern city of Chongqing.

However, on Tuesday, as discussion of the case continues to explode across the Internet, the Chinese clone of Twitter, Sina Weibo, deleted the accounts of several users, "including that of Li Delin, a senior editor of the Chinese business magazine Capital Week, whose March 19 post helped fuel rumors of a coup in Beijing," according to The Wall Street Journal

Li has since been detained by Chinese authorities.

"The episode demonstrated both the power of China's new digital media and the Chinese Communist Party's increasingly iron-fisted effort to control it," the WSJ added. "In the wake of the coup rumors, authorities announced the detention of six people in relation to the rumors and the arrest of more than 1,000 others for what the authorities said were Internet crimes."

The newspaper also noted that it was not clear if the notice came from the government itself or from the company, Sina.

"But it is the most direct warning yet to Internet users to rein in the freewheeling discussion for which Sina Weibo is known," the paper reported.