The number of microblog accounts affiliated to Chinese government agencies has reached 87,000 by the third quarter of 2013, an increase of 71 percent.

The figure was released Tuesday in a report by Sina.com, a leading portal website in China and the provider of Sina Weibo, China's twitter-like microblogging service. The report also says the government-related microblogs have so far posted 72 million messages, which have been reposted for 420 million times in the Internet.

Along with microblogging information on government affairs, authorities in China are utilizing social media to keep citizens and news outlets updated on what is taking place in the country's courts.

More than 13 provincial-level courts and 120 district intermediate courts are opening official microblog accounts to notify citizens of ongoing legal developments. Likewise, 20 provinces have live-microblogged trial--especially those involving high-profile figures.