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China Censors 60,000 Porn Sites, 5,000 Arrested

Posted by Soulskill on from the neverending-battle dept.

lothos writes with news that China has arrested thousands more people and shuttered 60,000 websites in an ongoing anti-pornography crackdown. "Wang Chen, director of the Information Office of the State Council, said at a news conference that some 350 million pieces of pornographic and indecent internet content were eliminated, according to the Xinhua report. The government launched a special campaign a year ago to rid the internet of pornographic and vulgar content, Xinhua reported. Overall, the campaign included 2,197 criminal cases involving 4,965 people who violated Chinese law by disseminating pornography via the internet or mobile phones, the news agency said. Of those, 58 people received prison sentences exceeding five years."

43 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. welcome to china by wan9xu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    where government officials can openly keep harems but citizens can't even watch porn.

    1. Re:welcome to china by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Welcome to America, where Congressmen can fight for and pass laws discriminating against gays, while they bang boys in their offices, suck cock in airport bathrooms and so on.

      All politicians think they are gods above the law while the people are mere inconveniences for them to rule over. The only difference in China is that at least they are honest about being totalitarian.

    2. Re:welcome to china by couchslug · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I find it odd that the ChiCom government should CARE about porn.

      Any insights on that one?

      Let the citizens fap in peace and they won't rebel, while profiteering from said fappage could enrich the oligarchy.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    3. Re:welcome to china by wan9xu · · Score: 2

      the way chicom preaches, sex is for reproduction purposes, and any sexual act not related to reproduction is a bourgeois extravagance. it's further infused with elements of chinese tradition (from confucian/buddhist roots), where sex is considered dirty and degrading, and only to be practiced to maintain the blood lineage.

    4. Re:welcome to china by jnbszabo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Neal Stephenson, in his novel the Diamond Age, goes on at length about the Chinese' hysterical fear of anarchy. It may not be porn as such the Chinese rulers fear, just like it isn't opium or heroin that frightens them, but rather the inability to contain the consequences of potential runaway overindulgence. It might be a case of choosing the devil you know (the consequences of overbearingness) versus the devil you don't know (anarchy). Tien an menh square was an illustration of this.

    5. Re:welcome to china by Blue+Stone · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not sure that they care about porn so much as care about controlling 'their' citizens. Power needs to be used to be appreciated; without exercising power and control over others, how can one know one has it? It's like music - unless it's being played, it doesn't exist. So they crack down on this and that.

      Sex and sexuality is one area where people are the most wilfull - acting for their own (er) ends; of their own volition. It seems like the perfect area to (er) crack down on for an organisation of people looking to exercise control over others and subject them to their will; keep them in line.

      --
      Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
    6. Re:welcome to china by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I find it odd that the ChiCom government should CARE about porn.

      Any insights on that one?

      Let the citizens fap in peace and they won't rebel, while profiteering from said fappage could enrich the oligarchy.

      I find it odd that the U.S. government should CARE about certain drugs.

      Any insights on that one?

      Let the citizens get stoned/ripped/trashed/high in peace and they won't rebel, while profiteering from said legalization and taxation of said controlled substances could enrich the oligarchy.

      I think both questions have the same answer.

    7. Re:welcome to china by wan9xu · · Score: 2

      sorry, i'm not going to translate all that news for you. so you'll need to:

      step 1: learn chinese.

      step 2: search news using keywords "corrupt official" (pinyin: tan1 guan1) and word for "lover" (pinyin: qing2 fu 4). slashdot apparently doesn't take any chinese characters.

      step 3: read.

    8. Re:welcome to china by gtall · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How can this be rated insightful. The fellow argued from a few isolated cases to damn every congress-critter. Most congress-critters are fine, upstanding people; their biggest problem is putting up with the American people; the American people believe the worst while refusing to take any responsibility for the state of the country.

    9. Re:welcome to china by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I find it odd that the ChiCom government should CARE about porn.

      Any insights on that one?

      Obviously, in China the rich and powerful can get as much pussy as they want. Denying the same to the working classes/masses is useful, as a frustrated sexual libido (in China, there is a lack of women, at the moment) can be focused very easily. It is how you control these masses, by promising them a bright future ("more (than 0) pussy") or channeling the rage against Japan, capitalist imperialism etc. whatever is convenient.

      Same thing in Islamist societies: the rich and powerful can have multiple wives, necessarily removing them from the pool for the general populace, who then believes in 72 virgins in another dimension, and all they have to do, is be exceptionally good Muslims (blow oneself up).

      These are methods to obscure the reality of the situation, to deflect the anger from those who really deserve it.

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    10. Re:welcome to china by TarPitt · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Relevant quote from 1984:

      With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality. As soon as this was touched upon in any way she was capable of great acuteness. Unlike Winston, she had grasped the inner meaning of the Party's sexual puritanism. It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship. The way she put it was:

      'When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simpIy sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?'

      --
      If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
    11. Re:welcome to china by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      > Most congress-critters are fine, upstanding people; their biggest problem is putting up with the American people

      Awww. that's so cute! Did Santa bring you that belief in magic?

      Politicians don't get into office unless they are desperately hungry for power. Everyone else who isn't gets raped by the people who are.

      Politicians live to serve themselves and their biggest contributors. If you ain't paying the bills, you are nothing to them except the annoying thing they have to dupe into voting for them every now and again.

      If you believe otherwise, I have a great bridge to nowhere you may be interested in buying.

    12. Re:welcome to china by I_Voter · · Score: 2

      gtall wrote:
      their biggest problem is putting up with the American people; the American people believe the worst while refusing to take any responsibility for the state of the country.
      -------
      IMO: Making a general statement about the political actions of U.S. citizens without understanding the nature of our political system is not very insightful.
      Citizen's Political Power in the U.S.
      IMO: Although the pile of democratic nations has been growing, when the ability of U.S. voters to influence their government is considered the U.S. voter is close to the bottom of that pile!

      I_Voter
      Platforms: From the Voters Perspective

    13. Re:welcome to china by JackieBrown · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It doesn't matter what country the story is about. You will always have 1/2 dozen + insightful posts that pretty much sum up as "America is worse."

      Mention another country as worse and you will be appropriately rated troll or off-topic.

    14. Re:welcome to china by wan9xu · · Score: 2

      it's pretty hard to mix up china and the church. but you are mixing up one child policy and sex taboo.

      chinese buddhism and confusianism considered sexual lust a, well for lack of a better word, sin. taoism codes also calls for quieting one's lusts. folklore believes that semen is the essence of man, the cream of blood. so sex, the process in which semen was expelled from the body, is a process of losing one's vitality. it should be done out of necessity. this was the traditional chinese mindset on sex before the communist tookover.

      after the tookover, the reason for porn ban was written in the party code way before there's internet porn or one child policy. in the early days of the PRC, proletariat/revolutionary morals were enforced. bourgeois luxury such as wine and fine dining and good clothing and, well, sexuality were discouraged. in fact trend for women in that era was to dress as much like men as possible. if you look at the chinese bank note--i believe it's a 10-yuan note--in that era, the woman on it was driving a tractor (to signify that women are as good workers as men), and pretty much dressed like a man. the chinese were told that sex is a means to boost the army of revolutionaries. and woman with many kids were celebrated as hero mothers.

      then after the cultural revolution and death of mao the deng govt realized china had a population problem, and one child policy was established. this was in the late 70's. it's a policy of necessity. early enforcements in rural areas were quite brutal because there's fierce resistance from the son-loving peasants. toward the one child goal, contraceptives were given for free or sold publicly, and when it's sold, it's called "equipment for planned reproduction".

      one child policy or hero mothers, the moral smear on sex is firmly in place, written in law in the form of ban on porn and prostitution. it's ironic, because though illegal, prostitution is rampant in china right now, and often corrupt officials have a stake in it by turning a blind eye. example, wen qiang case in sichuan. that guy's lover actually ran the biggest prison-brothel establishment in the city of chongqing. google it up.

    15. Re:welcome to china by pitchpipe · · Score: 2

      Most congress-critters are fine, upstanding people; their biggest problem is putting up with the American people

      I didn't know that members of Congress surfed slashdot!

      Joke for ya: if the opposite of pro is con, then the opposite of progress is...

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
    16. Re:welcome to china by Khashishi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's funny. You have some picture of the Chinese government as an evil mastermind, calculating every move to his advantage. It's a lot simpler than that. The laws largely reflect the attitudes of the population. A lot of Chinese people (just as a lot of Americans) feel that porn is morally bankrupt and want to see it go away. In America, various guarantees of liberties like the Bill of Rights prevent lawmakers from simply banning whatever the majority doesn't like. But in China, these safeguards don't exist.

  2. Priorities by ArcherB · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You would think that a country intent on controlling it's population growth would encourage fapping.

    --
    There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    1. Re:Priorities by mrsteveman1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They don't have to choose, it's a totalitarian country.

  3. Coming to the US and EU soon by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Net Neutrality? Or Fairness Doctrine? Nah. The FCC has been doing this since the 1950s, before those buzzwords even existed. In the same fashion they censor radio and television, they will soon be doing the same thing China is doing: censoring the "filthy nudie pics" from the web.

    Of course they should not be able to do. CATV and internet are PRIVATE domains so the FCC should keep their hands off. But they won't. Our US and EU politicians are no different than Chinese politicians - they all have avarice and ambition - love of money & love of power. They'll censor the porn off the net and justify it as "protecting the children".

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    1. Re:Coming to the US and EU soon by zero_out · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Now you're just spreading FUD. The FCC should be preventing this stuff from showing up where it isn't expected, but it's not trying to prevent porn from being on the internet, nor is it trying to prevent it from entering your home via your TV, as long as it's clearly gated. The FCC doesn't prevent your local cable company from providing you with porn. It prevents it from being broadcast openly to anyone with a TV, who can easily stumble upon it unwillingly. That's why a breast can't be displayed during the Super Bowl. It's the wrong place and the wrong time. Families will watch the Super Bowl, including kids, because it's considered to be "relatively" safe. Although, the FCC should be doing more about the commercials shown during the event.

      If you want to view porn, that's up to you, and nobody should prevent you from doing so, as long as it's behind a door that says "here there be porn." That way, I and my wards won't stumble upon it without my expressed consent. To say that the FCC is trying to prevent it from being provided to you AT ALL is a gross overstatement, and just plain FUD.

    2. Re:Coming to the US and EU soon by N0Man74 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's why a breast can't be displayed during the Super Bowl. It's the wrong place and the wrong time. Families will watch the Super Bowl, including kids, because it's considered to be "relatively" safe. Although, the FCC should be doing more about the commercials shown during the event.

      If you want to view porn, that's up to you, and nobody should prevent you from doing so, as long as it's behind a door that says "here there be porn." That way, I and my wards won't stumble upon it without my expressed consent.

      The fact that you follow up an example of a nip slip during a musical performance with an argument about accidentally seeing porn just goes to show you how screwed up our perception of simple nudity is in this country.

      Nudity is NOT porn. A "wardrobe malfunction" is not porn.

      Porn and simple nudity are two very different things and my mind boggles as to why so many people don't seem to get that.

  4. Is that different in other countries? by grumbel · · Score: 3

    Ok, here is a question: Is this actually different in other western countries?

    As far as I know in Germany for example you are not allowed to publish porn on the net unless you make sure that people under 18 don't have access it. To confirm to this criteria it isn't enough to just add an agegate, but instead it requires things like sending credit card info, PostIdent (you show your Id-card at a post office and post office confirms your identity to the website) or something else that is much more secure, thus essentially removing porn from the public Internet.

    Now this of course doesn't mean that there isn't porn on the net in Germany, there is tons of it as the net isn't filtered, but I don't think many of it is hosted in Germany by German companies.

    1. Re:Is that different in other countries? by Palmsie · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, and I think the point is, they are equally ridiculous, not equally intelligent.

      --
      Carl Sagan quotes get you an automatic +5 on all posts.
    2. Re:Is that different in other countries? by commodore64_love · · Score: 2

      In the U.S. porn (not just nudity but actual sex) is posted publicly on the web for everyone to see.

      Ditto on cable television (although most channels blur it out). There is no requirement that it be blocked from the eyes of children or teenagers..... that is considered the responsibility of the parent using NetNanny or TV Channel Locks.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  5. There is no left or right by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So censoring sexually explicit works of authorship is a right-wing plank in the United States, but it's left-wing in red China. Doesn't that destroy the meaning of "left wing" and "right wing"?

    1. Re:There is no left or right by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is clearly a Euro-central idea and thus in Asia its left wing and in North America its Right wing.

    2. Re:There is no left or right by oldspewey · · Score: 4, Funny

      Doesn't that destroy the meaning of "left wing" and "right wing"?

      Porn ... is there anything it can't do?

      --
      If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
    3. Re:There is no left or right by DarkVader · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There's nothing "left-wing" about modern China. It's not communist, it's not socialist. It's turned into a modern fascist-corporatist state.

      Public health care is nearly as bad as in the US. The Gini coefficient is in the same range as the US.

      If you want to see what happens when the left actually gets power, take a look at the Scandinavian countries - you get public health, a much more even distribution of wealth, and quite a bit of personal freedom. In other words, not China.

    4. Re:There is no left or right by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Europeans are the only people who have any sanity when it comes to nudity. I was watching a Philadelphia station that plays European programs, about some Italian detective/cop, and suddenly the young daughter walks into the room, topless, and sits there for five minutes. Nobody reacted.

      First I was shocked, and then I realized it ain't no big deal. In America (and Asia too apparently) the station would be hit with a million dollar fine if caught. I don't understand why people are afraid to see a naked breast or body. As the Pope once said about the nude paintings in various chapels: "The human body is made in God's image, therefore it remains holy even when it is unclothed."

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    5. Re:There is no left or right by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      Doesn't that destroy the meaning of "left wing" and "right wing"?

      Which of those tribes do you belong to? Hate the other one. You have a choice!

      (The Nolan Chart is much better, but still of an artificially low dimensionality.)

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    6. Re:There is no left or right by oldspewey · · Score: 2

      In the west, the collective is a theocracy.

      Not really. In most western countries it's more like plutocracy or corporatocracy.

      --
      If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
    7. Re:There is no left or right by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you think China is left-wing because of the Communist name they use then the Nazis were left-wing because they had the word Socialist in their name. Sorry but China is as autocratic as they get, they dropped communism long ago.

      --
      It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
    8. Re:There is no left or right by donscarletti · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ...about some Italian detective/cop, and suddenly the young daughter walks into the room, topless, and sits there for five minutes. Nobody reacted.

      Now, I am not reacting to say that this is harmful or degrading or whatever. But seriously, that is tacky, just plain tacky. They know that that scene was not gripping, so they put in a contrived pair of tits to keep the average punters interested. Honestly, in European films I have seen, particularly Italian, gratuitous nudity does coincide with a lull in the pacing that needed something to fill it, where Michael Bay would make a helicopter explode. Nice side effect of censorship is that it forces film-makers to try something new, rather than the tried and true chestnuts of violence, sex and obscenity that always work if you just use a little more than last time. Not that a bit of violence, sex and obscenity isn't good, but it is good to create legal and social forces to encourage other, more difficult things to be tried.

      --
      When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
    9. Re:There is no left or right by operagost · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If by "personal freedom" you mean being free to go to jail if you are a conscientious objector and refuse to serve in the military, then yes. Oh year, and you're free to pay taxes to support the state Lutheran church, while being barred from preaching in a public place.

      An "even distribution of wealth" means those who are productive have their reward taken away and given to those who aren't.

      Big government is not good.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    10. Re:There is no left or right by Shikaku · · Score: 2

      http://goo.gl/sF5kz

      Be careful what you wish for...

    11. Re:There is no left or right by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not that a bit of violence, sex and obscenity isn't good, but it is good to create legal and social forces to encourage other, more difficult things to be tried.

      Why do we as a people need legal or social "forces" to change what we want to see? If the world's culture wants to be about tits and explosions, then it's not up to some pompous prude in an office to dictate that this is somehow "wrong". Let people do what they darned well please.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    12. Re:There is no left or right by amorsen · · Score: 3, Informative

      From the description it sounds like you mean Denmark. Here you only go to jail if you refuse the non-military service that you can pick instead of military service. And you can pay taxes to support the Lutheran church, but you get asked whether you want to and you are free to say no and not pay.

      Sure the government should not be helping the church collect money, but honestly it cannot really get me riled up. It certainly has advantages for keeping the church out of politics, even if it does get a bit of politics into church.
       

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
  6. Seriously? by philmarcracken · · Score: 2

    They couldn't have gotten another guy without the first name Wang for this story? That is priceless.

  7. Just a drop in the bucket by kheldan · · Score: 2

    Pornography has been around as long as humans has been around. China is wasting it's time trying to stamp it out.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
  8. USA: secret kill threats, wiretapping, more war. by jbn-o · · Score: 2, Informative

    I would have liked to see more detail as well, however I think it's not hard to find serious faults with what the US Congress does and what it tacitly agrees with by not objecting. I don't see most "congress-critters" doing anything to stop some of the most heinous behavior the US government engages in. A few recent examples include:

    This all happened under President's Obama's watch. This all happened with overwhelmingly silent complicity of his Democratic Party Congress. Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional law and civil rights litigator, calls this wiretapping "at least as pernicious as any power asserted during the Bush/Cheney years".

    That's hardly the behavior I'd expect from "fine, upstanding people".

    --
    Digital Citizen
  9. Because America hate is trendy by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2

    I don't know why, but it is a very trendy thing on some sites like Slashdot. In particular any time faults with another country are mentioned. It seems to be a case of "Nobody in America is allowed to say anything since America also does bad things." I don't know why it is common or popular, but there you go.

  10. Re:There is a difference by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 2

    Let's stipulate that drug addiction destroys people. Is the prohibition working to prevent that? Is it your job to prevent me from destroying myself? Can you?