China Arrests Thousands In Internet Porn Crackdown

Clandestine_Blaze writes "Chinese police have arrested 5,394 people — with another 4,186 criminal cases in the works — in one of the largest crackdowns on Internet porn in the country. Even more arrests are expected in 2010, according to the Ministry of Public Security's website (In Chinese or Google translated into English). According to the Reuters article on the crackdown, one of the justifications was that the pornography was 'threatening the emotional health of children.' From the English translation of the Ministry of Public Security's website linked above, it appears that certain provinces are also offering 1,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan rewards, per person, for reporting illegal websites to the government."

Comments

I'm ever so thankful

[furball]

God bless the USA.

Re:I'm ever so thankful

[Entropy98]

Um... you can still go to jail for porn in the USA

Re:I'm ever so thankful

[OrangeTide]

when I heard about this the first thought in my head was, USA and China are so alike, it seems odd that they can't get along.

Re:I'm ever so thankful

[gzipped_tar]

"Most people are fools, most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is wrong. "

Re:I'm ever so thankful

[furball]

Gay porn exists dude. I don't know what to tell you.

Re:I'm ever so thankful

[pieszynski]

oh come on, "we only have morality because of god"?

Really?? REALLY??

My incredulity is matched only by my overuse of the question mark.

Re:I'm ever so thankful

[Jawn98685]

If God (the moral agent) does not exist, then there is no concept of "wrong", right?

No. Wrong. Go back and retake Ethics 101 and learn that there are many, many ways to arrive at a more or less workable "moral code". And no, the "religious dogma as authority" path is seldom one that reaches the level of "workable", having almost invariably, a built-in "us versus them (who are less than us)" way of thinking.

I don't understand

[Anonymous Coward]

What is this strange concept, the Internet without porn? Maybe the meaning of "the Internet" was lost in translation for the Chinese.

Re:I don't understand

[selven]

The people left on an internet without porn would be quite bored. Both of them.

Re:I don't understand

[slarrg]

Until they find each other on AdultFriendFinder.com.

Re:I don't understand

[Hurricane78]

As the wise Dr. Cox once said: “I am fairly sure that if they took porn off the Internet, there would only be one website left, and it would be called ‘Bring back the porn’.”

1000 Yuan

[mjihad]

Since the the summary didn't mention it, 1000 yuan is about $146.50.

Re:1000 Yuan

[Anonymous Coward]

Since your post didn't mention it, 102.28 Euro is about 1,506,305,441,321 Zimbabwean dollars.

1,506,305,441,321,301 Zimbabwean dollars.

1,506,305,441,321,301,998 Zimbabwean dollars.

Crap...

China is not a Left Wing or Communist State.

[Zombie Ryushu]

China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. There may be an entity called the Communist Party of China, but by no means is China Leftist, or even Socialist. They are a Fascist Autocracy.

No liberal or leftist government would attack the consumption of adult pornography. (Nor would they even care.)

Not that I am advocating Communism, which has failed everywhere it has been tried, and is an unworkable ideology, but as a leftist, who is deeply concerned about the rise of Right Wing Fascism around the world, I am concerned what this could cause Western governments to adopt. We have already seen that a large percentage of our Christian Right extremists in the USA and Canada do not believe in sexual equality or egalitarianism, or freedom of speech. I worry this will give them ideas.

Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State.

[Anonymous Coward]

"No liberal or leftist government would attack the consumption of adult pornography. (Nor would they even care.)"

Socialist crackpots have defined socialism and communism as good, hence by definition nothing bad is part of it.

If a state does bad things, the state is not a socialist state, hence it cannot be used as a negative example for any purpose in discussions about socialism.

If a person does bad things, the person is not a socialist, hence he cannot be used as a negative example for any purpose in discussions about socialism.

If a society has bad things in it, none of these bad things accrue to socialism. In fact, pointing out this fact is so important that if a guy sits at home in a socialist state and tells his children that socialism is bad, then this must be sought out and eradicated. Untruths about socialism cannot be accepted even in the most private corners. (Cue Norway, where the Socialist Left party announced that the state is better than parents at raising children most of the time).

Maybe someone has drunk too much of the totalitarian-perfectionist idiot brew.

Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State.

[plasticsquirrel]

As an American living in China, it pains me to see this sort of hysterical nonsense on Slashdot all the time. China is the new Evil Empire, apparently. Scream "fascist" all you want, but you and most other westerners do not understand Chinese civilization or the role that government has traditionally played in it. Then again, maybe the U.S. should "pre-empt" their errors, and save China from the Chinese. :-P

The basic reason that the Chinese do not allow porn is that they believe that it demeans women. This goes back to the revolution, in which women were eager to participate to get some basic equality with men. You can argue that women have a choice, but in poor provinces, you can bet that it would be akin to prostitution, where young women are basically forced into the lifestyle because they have no other options.

Chinese society is quite conservative about sex, or at least it has that appearance. For example, it isn't unheard of to hear of a foreigner beaten into a coma for deflowering local girls. In a country where virginity is prized and sex can almost be like a contract for marriage, that sort of thing isn't taken lightly. In the same way, if Chinese people think their women are being debased (as in porn), they tend to get very angry.

I am not going to try to explain 5000 years of Chinese civilization to you, or explain every way that it is different from the West, but I would encourage Slashdotters to read this article from the LA Times. It explains quite a bit about the role of government in China and how the West has gotten it wrong with predicting that China would become more like them (developing a rights tradition, embracing democracy, etc.).

Article: Understanding China

Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State.

[mindbrane]

I recently finished an excellent set of Yale uni Online lectures by R Wyman titled "Global Population and Biological Development". In one of the later lectures Professor Wyman reported on first hand experiences of scientist working in China investigating birth control programmes both as to their implementation and efficacy. In an earlier lecture he made the point that the current Chinese government has been able to convince the general population that the Chinese state exists as a viable entity. This point is interesting in light of reports by people working in China reporting on various birth control programmes. The gist of the reports was that the central government made sweeping claims and policy implementations that when translated, implemented and reported by the various districts came out in the wash as markedly different from the original proclamations made by the central government. Locally people seem in large measure to implement such policies as they see fit and to colour reports back to the central government to placate central control agencies.

Chinese history is a history of warring states so much so that I'm not able to subscribe to Professor Wyman claim that China has attained unification. Taiwan stands out as a stark example in terms of how young the mainland state is. I recall the Chinese government is only about 60 years old and faces an economic reality that greatly flies in the face of it's communist posture. A central regime that broadcasts slogans like "Purity and Harmony" and implements draconian practices to influence it's population on the level of their sexual drive smacks of desperation.

Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State.

[furball]

The basic reason that the Chinese do not allow porn is that they believe that it demeans women. This goes back to the revolution, in which women were eager to participate to get some basic equality with men.

How's that working out for the women in China? Here in the West where porn is legal (for the most part), we have Germany with a female prime minister. Great Britain had a female PM also. The US has had multiple female VP candidates. We have numerous female in cabinet positions. A woman currently is the leader of the House of Representatives. Another is running DHS badly. Another woman heads the state department. That's the public sector. In the private sector we've had countless female CEO that I'm not going to bother listing all of them.

Are there any signs women are equal with more men because China does not allow porn? I'm not terribly familiar with the internal governing of China or who runs their corporations. I'm amazed I even know where China is on the map.

Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State.

[Anonymous Coward]

You've drunk the Kool-Aid. I've lived in China for years, and I've heard a few westerners speak exactly as you do.
There are two major forces at work here:

1. Propaganda, nationalist extremists, and a strong feedback mechanism between the two.
2. Historical revisionism.

That mysticism argument goes something like this:
"Oh you can't possibly understand Chinese culture; It's too complex for you, and even if you learned Mandarin, read every book written in Mandarin, you still can't understand because you weren't born Chinese"

The reality is quite simple to understand. China is crashing into the modern world and as individuals try to make sense of it all, the national identity is in crisis. From the top down, there comes authority and an appeal to history, nationalism and racism.
From the bottom up, comes sexual revolution, and rejection of tradition, as well as some reflection of authoritarianism that came from the top.

Basically you're just generalising, and generalising sucks because it gloms everyone together, then stamps all over individuality.

Ps. I didn't find Chinese girls and guys ;-) in the least bit conservative about sex.

Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State.

[NecroPuppy]

The basic reason that the Chinese do not allow porn is that they believe that it demeans women.

And China's deification of Mao, who preferred young women (we'd consider him a pedophile) didn't demean women? (The New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng)

How about the one-child policy, which causes Chinese to prefer male children, to the point where female children are abandoned or "accidentally" killed? You'd think that would demean women.

Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State.

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

So female politicians leading a country isn't empowerment of women?

The upperclass has always operated under different rules from general population. We've had queens, emperesses and princesses going back forever in both the west and the east. If female politicians leading a country were a sign of general female empowerment then women have not been repressed since at least the days of Cleopatra.

What pray tell is empowerment of women then?

Economic and social parity with men in the general population.

What happened to the whitelisting system??

[lkcl]

um... wasn't there a slashdot report about whitelisting of all foreign web sites, so that no external porn would get into the country?? did someone in the chinese government forget about the concept of a) mirrors b) home-grown porn, then?

Re:Reward?

[plasticsquirrel]

It's only $300, and I believe the websites need to be hosted in China. They want to stop people from making porn in China (viewed as exploiting local women), and they don't care so much about people simply viewing porn on foreign sites. $300 is the monthly salary for many Chinese, if that puts it into perspective. It's difficult to say whether what class that is, though, because incomes are all over the place. Maybe it's a working class salary.

Less than 10,000 in a billion watch porn?

[syousef]

It's a country of saints and monks I tells ya!

Darknets

[MichaelSmith]

In some corners of the world it is time to get serious about crypto and darknets. If the chinese government is not careful, their attempts to suppress pornography may lead to the creation of networks which will ultimately bring them down.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

On the other hand...

[Anonymous Coward]

Socialist crackpots have defined socialism and communism as good, hence by definition nothing bad is part of it.

If a state does bad things, the state is not a socialist state, hence it cannot be used as a negative example for any purpose in discussions about socialism.

Similarly, capitalist crackpots have defined the free market as good, hence by definition nothing bad is part of it.

If a market produces bad outcomes, that market is not a free market, hence it cannot be used as a negative example for any purpose in discussions about capitalism.

Untruths about socialism cannot be accepted even in the most private corners. (Cue Norway, where the Socialist Left party announced that the state is better than parents at raising children most of the time).

Similarly, untruths about capitalism cannot be accepted even in the most private corners. (Cue the United States, where the Republican Party regularly announces that the individual is better than the state at doing everything all the time.)

Insightful? what?

[bussdriver]

So now we define words based on what the crackpots think they mean?

Parent is using a straw man fallacy: setting up a false premise that is easy to knock down with the subsequent argument; banking on others to accept the false premise.

Patriotism and Nationalism (2 different things) often suffer from attempted hijacking by crackpots seeking to redefine them.
For example, in the USA socialism has been misunderstood for over a generation and the crackpot definition is currently mainstream. "Keep the government out of my medicare!" etc.

Besides, this left/right paradigm is for simpletons and the poor reasoning that results aids the political parties. So, the misunderstanding is perpetuated. In addition, many people are willfully ignorant when it comes to politics (there is no stigma of shame like there is with illiteracy.) A far more realistic model is TWO DIMENSIONAL: left/right + top/bottom. Check it out: http://politicalcompass.org/

I reiterate:
So now we define words based on what the crackpots think they mean?

That's all they found?

[tubeguy]

In China? Out of 1.3 billion people? They have some catching up to do....

MOD PARENT UP

[Anonymous Coward]

Libertarian crackpots are just as guilty. Whoever modded the parent down was probably one of them!

Ask them why the USA's free market in health insurance sucks so much and they'll say "it's just not free ENOUGH". Even though every country with health insurance that WORKS has way MORE government involvement.

Britain: 5,394 arrested in Internet song crackdown

[David Gerard]

WHITEHALL, Beijing, Friday (NTN) — British police arrested thousands in the Digital Britain drive against Internet file sharing throughout 2009, officials said, which critics say is being used to tighten overall censorship.

The British government has run a highly publicized campaign, “Digital Britain,” against what officials said were banned file sharing of Lily Allen songs, overwhelming the country’s Internet and “threatening the emotional health of children.”

Lord Mandelson said late on Thursday that the crackdown on Internet file sharing had brought 5,394 arrests and 4,186 criminal case investigations in 2009. The announcement on the Digital Britain website said the drive would deepen in 2010. Police would “intensify punishments for Internet operations that violate laws and regulations. Strengthen monitoring of information,” it urged, “Press Internet service providers to put in place preventive technology.”

The ministry did not say how many of the 5,394 suspects arrested were later charged, released or prosecuted. The anti-file sharing drive has also netted many sites with politically sensitive or even simply user-generated content, in what some see as an effort by the government to reassert control over new media. The ruling Labour Party worries the Internet could become a dangerous conduit for threatening images and ideas.

Britain has banned a number of popular websites and Internet services, including Wikipedia. NewsTechnica passed without comment, however.

and the UK too...

[mdwh2]

Indeed. And here in the UK, we've had a year of possession of so-called "extreme" porn being criminalised, which is already being used for as ludicrous cases as joke Photoshopped images of someone having sex with a tiger.

It also reminds me of a common claim regarding criticism of porn crackdowns: "Why are you whining about porn; in China they have real censorship about political things, that's what real censorship is like", they cry. Stories like this show that different kinds of censorship - whether moral or political - are two sides of the same coin. They all have the same effect of ruining people's lives, over material that the state wants to banish.

It's not about porn, it's about censorship

[walterbyrd]

It is not just porn that China is censoring.

January 1, 2010:
China: Reaffirms Plans to "Purify" the Internet

Says crackdown on online pornography is part of overall effort to preserve "national long-term stability," build a "harmonious socialist society," and prevent the "poisoning of young people's physical and mental health," but most likely is all about strengthening its grip on the what could be a dangerous conduit for threatening images and ideas.

As part of that effort it says that it intends to create a "blacklist" that will provide "timely information about foreign propaganda, radio and television, publishing and other areas for their disposal."

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/87485/china-reaffirms-plans-to-purify-the-internet/