Internet must be 'clean and righteous': Xi

BEIJING: The internet must be “clean and righteous” and vulgar content must be resisted in the field of culture, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a meeting of senior propaganda officials, state media said on Wednesday.

The government has been tightening controls over internet content as part of what it says are efforts to maintain social stability, taking on “vulgar” and pornographic content as well as the unauthorised dissemination of news. The moves come amid a broader clamp-down targeting online content from livestreams and blogs to mobile gaming, as the country's leaders look to tighten their grip over a huge and diverse cultural scene online popular with China's youth.

Speaking at a two-day meeting, attended by officials from major state media outlets and the internet regulator, Xi said propaganda efforts needed to be put front and centre, the official Xinhua news agency said. “Uphold a clean and righteous internet space,” the report cited Xi as saying.

China shut as many as 128,000 websites that contained obscene and other “harmful” information in 2017, Xinhua reported in January, citing government data.

China's media regulator has also been cracking down on video spoofs, as part of the intensified crackdown on any content that is deemed to be in violation of socialist core values under Xi. Despite strict censorship, China has a fairly lively online community of bloggers, who frequently respond to breaking events with humorous – and sometimes risqué – sketches and short videos, although they often face their posts being taken down.