Following the circulation of various videos of questionable taste on Chinese social media, China’s top anti-pornography office is launching a campaign to purify the web and strip it of amateur sex clips.
Arguing that the videos are a threat to social decency, moral standards, and law and order, the Office Against Pornography and Illegal Publications is demanding that government authorities act immediately when similar cases arise and discipline anyone who uploads and hosts the content. The office is also calling for a hotline to be set up for public reports.
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Wednesday saw the emergence of two lewd videos. In one case, Chinese social media exploded when sexual scenes were broadcast on a large display screen at a shopping mall in the city of Lishui. The content spread quickly, and police are investigating to determine who was responsible. Later that day a homemade video of sex acts in the city of Chengdu also went viral on social media. Local authorities have detained one person under suspicion of spreading the video.
Related: China Is Going Crazy Over an Amateur Sex Tape Filmed in a Uniqlo Changing Room
In July, a young couple filmed sexual acts in a Uniqlo fitting room, setting off a firestorm on Chinese social media and leaving the country’s censors red in the face. The act inspired a slew of memes, fashion trends, and even a rap and a tattoo. Chinese authorities quickly engaged in a frustrating effort to remove the video from the internet; as swiftly as it was removed in some quarters, it would emerge again elsewhere.
Rumors suggested that the incident might have been a guerrilla marketing stunt, which Uniqlo adamantly denied, issuing a formal apology. Four people were detained under suspicion for spreading the video.
Pornography is illegal in China. Last year, the government launched “Cleaning the Web 2014” in an attempt to rid its internet of porn, shutting down hundreds of websites and thousands of social media services that were said to host pornographic and vulgar material. The countries censors monitor all websites, search engines, and mobile app stores for smutty material (among other things), and any texts, photos, and videos found to have lewd content are routinely deleted.
Related: India Just Walked Back Its Ban on Hundreds of Porn Websites
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Photo via Flickr
