China Takes Action On Thousands Of Websites For 'Harmful', Obscene Content (reuters.com)

China has shut down or "dealt with" thousands of websites for sharing "harmful" erotic or obscene content since April, the state's office for combating pornography and illegal publications announced on Thursday. From a report on Reuters: The office said 2,500 websites were prosecuted or shut down and more than 3 million "harmful" posts were deleted in eight months up to December during a drive to "purify" the internet in China and protect youth, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The government has tightening its grip on Chinese cyberspace in recent months, in particular placing new restrictions on the fast-growing live-streaming industry. The state has a zero-tolerance approach to what it considers lewd, smutty or illegal content and has in past crackdowns removed tens of thousands of websites in a single year.

Comments

Purity is such an impure word

[Visarga]

Purity is such an impure word - it means repression, persecution and lack of liberty. It's been abused since time immemorial, the main tool in the ideological toolbox.

Not censorship

[tietokone-olmi]

China doesn't have a first amendment, so it's not censorship. Even if it were, it's being enacted by the comms operators, which some will say makes it not matter since the first amdemnenenent only impacts the government.

So there. Please to be removink your insultink title. China stronk laa.

Re:Not censorship

[SeaFox]

China doesn't have a first amendment, so it's not censorship.

Nice try. Censorship is simply defined as the act by an official of regulating access or editing content that is deemed objectionable or sensitive. Whether content meets these criteria is based only on a judgement call, there is nothing in the definition that says it has to be legally based.

Even if it were, it's being enacted by the comms operators, which some will say makes it not matter since the first amdemnenenent only impacts the government.

Likewise, the "official" is simply the individual who is tasked with carrying out this action, anyone can be in this role, not just government agents. So that would make an employee of the provider just as much an "official". Same with volunteer moderators on any internet message board. If they have the power and are sanctioned to use it for that purpose by the people in charge, they are officials.

Also, big oops on your part: China's telecom companies are state-owned. That technically means all the provider employees are government employees.

Re:Not censorship

[Khashishi]

I had no idea censorship was defined by the first amendment.

Re:Or call it treason

[Hognoxious]

The key difference is that when governments do it it's repression, but when corporations do it it's legitimate protection of shareholder value.

Re:I do not get it

[rtb61]

Basically the censorship has nothing what so ever to do with porn and everything to do with politics. Nearly every country on the globe is trying to go down this exact censorship route. The camouflage of "we need to protect children from internet porn" when what they really mean is, we need to censor all non government approved internet political speech.

The reality is, yes children do need to be protected from the adult internet and this can only be done by running a parrallel, encrypted and secured internet protocol, monitored and secured to ensure only approved content get on the the child safe internet, that hooks up schools and other education facilities to provide quality sound content, Adults allowed on are all specifically registered (play on the child safe internet as an adult and you will pay in prison as an adult) and minors log in via their student ID card and their internet experience is tailored to their age, what is fit for 16 year olds is not fit for 6 year olds. Of course the greedy shit heads do not want this because no political censorship for adults possible and most importantly no free access to minors by adults to sell the junk food and manipulate them to scam them out of their pocket money (literally billionaires stealing children's pocket money, the psychopathic greed just mind boggling).