BEIJING — The Chinese government released a statement Wednesday touting the results of its campaign during the first quarter of 2023 to censor, threaten and punish platforms and websites for “harmful information,” a category in which China includes pornography.
The statement by China’s Cyberspace Administration boasts that during the first three months of this year, Chinese cyberspace regulators at various levels shut down more than 4,200 websites and banned nearly 70 apps suspected of “engaging in criminal activities such as providing illegal news services and spreading pornography,” China Daily reported.
According to the Chinese government, representatives of more than 2,000 websites were “summoned and instructed to rectify their actions, and 48 websites were banned from offering or upgrading services.” The crackdown also included the removal of 55 mobile apps from app stores in the country.
Local executives of large platforms such as Bing were likewise summoned by local online regulators and instructed to “immediately rectify their actions.”
The government targeted massive search engine Baidu and Chinese Twitter and Twitch equivalents Sina Weibo and Douyu for third-party content uploaded by users, which the government considers “harmful information.” The three platforms were fined and also “urged to make immediate rectifications.”
According to the Chinese censors, “harmful information” includes “pornography, superstition, prostitution, gambling and high-interest lending.”
China has no First Amendment-equivalent protections for free speech, nor anything like Section 230, which protects U.S. platforms from government censorship.
As XBIZ reported, many digital rights and free speech advocates have warned that current proposals by Republican politicians and some Democratic allies to alter or eliminate Section 230 and create criminal and civil liability for internet companies are likely to create a censorship situation similar to the Chinese model.