Anti-porn office raids Guangzhou company over ‘Elsagate’ videos

Authorities have raided a Guangzhou-based company that produces videos with inappropriate content disguised as popular cartoons, China’s anti-pornography office said on Wednesday.

Law enforcement departments in Guangdong Province raided two production venues of Guangzhou Yinjun Trading Company on Monday for producing illegal content online without permission, the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said on Sina Weibo.

The equipment used for producing the content has been confiscated. The statement did not elaborate on how many suspects were involved.

In an apology posted on Weibo on Monday on a personal account, the company said, “We set a bad example – we were thinking about how to win views but ignored the fact that those videos harmed children.”

The bust came after an article in Weibo on Tuesday drew attention to Elsagate, a trend in which seemingly innocent animation videos that actually involve bloody, pornographic and violent content were uploaded to Youtube.

Major video platforms, such as Tencent, Youku, Iqiyi, have all screened the videos in question. In addition to those copied from Youtube, reality show videos in Chinese which include scenes of adults beating children with rulers and of a boy giving a girl an injection after lifting up her skirt have circulated online.

Many parents condemned these online videos, saying their children watched the Elsagate videos accidentally when they searched for cartoons.

The anti-pornography office said it will continue to crack down on inappropriate online videos and severely punish those responsible.