Marketing employee Qin Zhihui, 30, is believed to be the first person to be jailed since China's authorities announced a crackdown on online writers last August.
Authorities claimed a false post he wrote about a foreign victim of a 2011 train crash receiving £24million in compensation was reposted more than 11,000 times and commented on more than 3,000 times, inciting anger against the government.
Qin, from Hunan province, was also found guilty of spreading rumors about several celebrities including popular television hostess Yang Lan, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Chaoyang District People's Court heard the rumours were spread in 2012 and 2013 through Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.
China adopted draconian measures to crack down on online rumours last year.
People will be charged with defamation if posts that contain 'rumours' are visited by 5,000 internet users or reposted more than 500 times, according to a judicial interpretation issued by China's top court and prosecutor.
Qin Zhihui, known as Qinhuohuo in cyberspace, was arrested last August and accused of impacting society and seriously harming social order with his posts, according to Xinhua.
But he made a confession to the court - and if he had not, would have been sentenced even more harshly.
'I don't want to defend myself,' he said, according to the South China Morning Post.
'I just want to say that I hope my experience is a lesson to other microbloggers.'
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