China has successfully shut down over 4,000 websites and online accounts as part of the government's ongoing three-month clean-up drive that hunts down any online information suspected of proliferating harmful content, especially pornography and in other related forms, a statement from the national news agency said on Thursday.
Citing the official Xinhua news outfit, Beijing continues its operation to crack down a wide range of illegal activities that are being done online, Reuters report said. Pornography, gambling, and the spread of rumors are just some of the concerns of the government's campaign which was launched in May with the cooperation of the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications (NOAPIP)and the State Administration of Press and Publication.
Earlier this September, authorities working behind the campaign announced that they have already tackled 120 violations and issued order to more than 200 firms in the country to resolve irregularities.
Beijing's fight against malicious online content have also managed to exterminate close to 150,000 pieces of information deemed too harmful for public consumption, the news from an Australian press agency added. Citing the details provided over by NOAPIP and its accompanying agency said that the operation to wipe the internet in China clean of this harmful information is still on-going but based on a status report which was released at the end of August, it looks like the campaign is already gaining enough steam.
The Xinhua report added that the internet clean-up drive is also targeting creative written works being published online. These online fiction pieces were suspected of spreading improper values, vulgarity, and obscenity to the public, especially to the youth who are its main consumers.
Cases of copyright infringement are also being looked into and this may include implementing measures such as the website's self-checks and authority inspections.
This particular initiative from the campaign is expected to further intensify as Beijing works on its goal to establish a healthy, and at the same time, clean online literature environment, the statement from Xinhua added.
Meanwhile, authorities announced last week that they were able to bust a major live-streaming porn site which reportedly had 3.5 million registered users. Its website platform was hosted in Cambodia.
Intensifying Efforts
This wouldn't be the first time that China has went after illegal activities being done in the cyber world. Last year, Chinese officials confirmed that it has shut down more than 20,000 pornographic websites, according to Times of India.
In 2017 alone, the campaign managed to delete close to 2 million online contents in 390 cases, the aforementioned offices said.
