China shuts down 130,000 websites in continuing anti-porn crackdown

China shut down nearly 130,000 websites in 2017 during its campaign against online pornography and illegal publications.

The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications (NOAPIP) has confiscated over 3,000 illegal publications and closed more than 128,000 websites in the past year, Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

More than 350,000 harmful publications and pieces of information and more than 4.5 million pieces of online pornography related information were removed in 2017, according to NOAPIP.

A number of well-known websites were also punished for their involvement in harmful information, including sina.com and toutiao.com. More than 6,000 websites and accounts were shut down for spreading pornography online, with 500 of these cases filed in courts.

There were also crackdowns on many live-streaming platforms and video hosts in 2017.

A special campaign against VR pornography in 2017 resulted in the detention of more than 30 suspects across China.

The Chinese public has also been actively engaged in the campaign, with NOAPIP receiving more than 120,000 tip-offs. Over 1,100 of them offered important clues for the crackdown.

Spreading pornography, whether for profit or otherwise, is subject to administrative or criminal punishment in China, according to Xinhua.