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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."

13 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 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.

    4. 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.
    5. 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. 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 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
    4. 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
  3. 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.

  4. 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.