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Internet slang has become so prevalent in the local mainstream media that the Shanghai language police have planned to ban it.

Instant messaging and email have been populated with various abbreviations slang terms for a long time. That slang has made its way into the press in Shanghai, and it looks like local authorities there are going to stamp out the practice, AP reports:

"Zhang Yaqin goes to Beijing to 'PK' Lee Kai-fu," the China Business News said in a headline referring to competition between the new heads of Microsoft Corp.'s and Google Inc.'s China operations.
PK, as gamers know, stands for player killer. Putting that into a news article, as the paper noted above did, will become an outlawed practice soon. A Chinese official noted in the report that the Chinese language needs to be regulated just as it needs to be developed.

The Shanghai Morning Post quoted the official as saying: "(T)he mainstream media have a responsibility to guide proper and legal language usage." New rules on language usage will be created and enforced to address the issue.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.