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Censorship The Internet Your Rights Online

China Censors 60,000 Porn Sites, 5,000 Arrested 219

Posted by Soulskill from the neverending-battle dept.
lothos writes with news that China has arrested thousands more people and shuttered 60,000 websites in an ongoing anti-pornography crackdown. "Wang Chen, director of the Information Office of the State Council, said at a news conference that some 350 million pieces of pornographic and indecent internet content were eliminated, according to the Xinhua report. The government launched a special campaign a year ago to rid the internet of pornographic and vulgar content, Xinhua reported. Overall, the campaign included 2,197 criminal cases involving 4,965 people who violated Chinese law by disseminating pornography via the internet or mobile phones, the news agency said. Of those, 58 people received prison sentences exceeding five years."
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China Censors 60,000 Porn Sites, 5,000 Arrested More

China Censors 60,000 Porn Sites, 5,000 Arrested

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  • welcome to china (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wan9xu ( 1829310 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @10:43AM (#34721900)
    where government officials can openly keep harems but citizens can't even watch porn.

    • Re:welcome to china (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 31, 2010 @10:48AM (#34721954)

      Welcome to America, where Congressmen can fight for and pass laws discriminating against gays, while they bang boys in their offices, suck cock in airport bathrooms and so on.

      All politicians think they are gods above the law while the people are mere inconveniences for them to rule over. The only difference in China is that at least they are honest about being totalitarian.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by SanityInAnarchy ( 655584 )

        The other difference is that here, at least the laws aren't as totalitarian. I'd rather have politicians who dishonestly slap me from time to time (then claim they didn't) than politicians who rape me openly.

        • Apples and oranges. I prefer laws that aren't as totalitarian, but I'd also rather have politicians who are honest about their motives and corruptness than ones who are dishonest.

          This is probably why the Republicans are experiencing a resurgence now. The Democrats and Republicans are pretty much identical, except for their stances on not-so-important issues that they use to divide and distract voters. But Reps are honest and blatant in their corporate corruption, whereas Democrats act like they're in fav

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by gtall ( 79522 )

        How can this be rated insightful. The fellow argued from a few isolated cases to damn every congress-critter. Most congress-critters are fine, upstanding people; their biggest problem is putting up with the American people; the American people believe the worst while refusing to take any responsibility for the state of the country.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          > Most congress-critters are fine, upstanding people; their biggest problem is putting up with the American people

          Awww. that's so cute! Did Santa bring you that belief in magic?

          Politicians don't get into office unless they are desperately hungry for power. Everyone else who isn't gets raped by the people who are.

          Politicians live to serve themselves and their biggest contributors. If you ain't paying the bills, you are nothing to them except the annoying thing they have to dupe into voting for them every

        • I would have liked to see more detail as well, however I think it's not hard to find serious faults with what the US Congress does and what it tacitly agrees with by not objecting. I don't see most "congress-critters" doing anything to stop some of the most heinous behavior the US government engages in. A few recent examples include:

          • killing foreigners in illegal, immoral (and increasingly unpopular and costly) wars of aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen
          • stopping the US president from making death t [salon.com]

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by I_Voter ( 987579 )
          gtall wrote:
          their biggest problem is putting up with the American people; the American people believe the worst while refusing to take any responsibility for the state of the country.
          -------
          IMO: Making a general statement about the political actions of U.S. citizens without understanding the nature of our political system is not very insightful.
          Citizen's Political Power in the U.S. [tripod.com]
          IMO: Although the pile of democratic nations has been growing, when the ability of U.S. voters to influence their gover

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by JackieBrown ( 987087 )

          It doesn't matter what country the story is about. You will always have 1/2 dozen + insightful posts that pretty much sum up as "America is worse."

          Mention another country as worse and you will be appropriately rated troll or off-topic.

        • Most congress-critters are fine, upstanding people; their biggest problem is putting up with the American people

          I didn't know that members of Congress surfed slashdot!

          Joke for ya: if the opposite of pro is con, then the opposite of progress is...

        • I don't know why, but it is a very trendy thing on some sites like Slashdot. In particular any time faults with another country are mentioned. It seems to be a case of "Nobody in America is allowed to say anything since America also does bad things." I don't know why it is common or popular, but there you go.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by swb ( 14022 )

            I've noticed over the past year that whenever Chinese politics, government or policies are criticized across a range a websites, but particularly technology websites, there's an almost immediate anti-American backlash.

            It makes me wonder -- how hard would it be to staff an office of a few hundred Chinese fluent in English and deploy them as "China Defenders" on English language web sites to "match" anti-Chinese sentiment with anti-American propaganda? My guess is that the Chinese could ramp this up to a few

      • It's not porn if it's the government doing it to you ;)

    • Re:welcome to china (Score:5, Interesting)

      by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @10:58AM (#34722074)

      I find it odd that the ChiCom government should CARE about porn.

      Any insights on that one?

      Let the citizens fap in peace and they won't rebel, while profiteering from said fappage could enrich the oligarchy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by wan9xu ( 1829310 )
        the way chicom preaches, sex is for reproduction purposes, and any sexual act not related to reproduction is a bourgeois extravagance. it's further infused with elements of chinese tradition (from confucian/buddhist roots), where sex is considered dirty and degrading, and only to be practiced to maintain the blood lineage.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pax681 ( 1002592 )

          the way chicom preaches, sex is for reproduction purposes, and any sexual act not related to reproduction is a bourgeois extravagance. it's further infused with elements of chinese tradition (from confucian/buddhist roots), where sex is considered dirty and degrading, and only to be practiced to maintain the blood lineage.

          Really? is that why they are only allowed one chiuld each by law?

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy

          i think you are getting China and the church of Rome mixed up here

          having met quite a lot of chinese students studying here in Edinburgh it seems that condoms and other forms of contraception aree given FREE by the govt so the populace can pork away with impunity without worrying about having any babies that are conbsidered surplus to requirement......

          there is no stigma associated with sex at a

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by wan9xu ( 1829310 )
            it's pretty hard to mix up china and the church. but you are mixing up one child policy and sex taboo.

            chinese buddhism and confusianism considered sexual lust a, well for lack of a better word, sin. taoism codes also calls for quieting one's lusts. folklore believes that semen is the essence of man, the cream of blood. so sex, the process in which semen was expelled from the body, is a process of losing one's vitality. it should be done out of necessity. this was the traditional chinese mindset on sex be

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Pax681 ( 1002592 )
              well according to those Chinese students that's not the case bud.

        • the way chicom preaches, sex is for reproduction purposes, and any sexual act not related to reproduction is a bourgeois extravagance. it's further infused with elements of chinese tradition (from confucian/buddhist roots), where sex is considered dirty and degrading, and only to be practiced to maintain the blood lineage.

          Sex is dirty, and only approved for reproduction? They're Catholics!!!
          No wonder the Chinese Communist party is appointing Catholic bishops etc in China nowadays. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11937807 [bbc.co.uk]

      • It seems to fly in the face of the one-child policy. I suppose what that means is that the real position of the Chinese government is population growth, despite any official trappings otherwise.

      • Re:welcome to china (Score:4, Insightful)

        by jnbszabo ( 742347 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @11:24AM (#34722318) Homepage
        Neal Stephenson, in his novel the Diamond Age, goes on at length about the Chinese' hysterical fear of anarchy. It may not be porn as such the Chinese rulers fear, just like it isn't opium or heroin that frightens them, but rather the inability to contain the consequences of potential runaway overindulgence. It might be a case of choosing the devil you know (the consequences of overbearingness) versus the devil you don't know (anarchy). Tien an menh square was an illustration of this.

        • That fear not unfounded.

          Anarchy is a KNOWN "devil", and the very condition the Communist Party rescued China from in 1948. "Disorder" was FULLY exploited by China's enemies.

          The horrors of warlordism, war, and famine are well within living memory. Anarchy has a "face" to Chinese leadership and to many older Chinese.

      • Wasn't access to porn part of the foundation of the oligarchy in 1984? You'd think the Chinese government would want the people to keep themselves entertained instead of grumbling. I don't see why they'd want to have some sort of puritanical society. Maybe they have a Chinese Oliver Cromwell in charge now.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Blue Stone ( 582566 )

        I'm not sure that they care about porn so much as care about controlling 'their' citizens. Power needs to be used to be appreciated; without exercising power and control over others, how can one know one has it? It's like music - unless it's being played, it doesn't exist. So they crack down on this and that.

        Sex and sexuality is one area where people are the most wilfull - acting for their own (er) ends; of their own volition. It seems like the perfect area to (er) crack down on for an organisation of peopl

        • Re:welcome to china (Score:4, Interesting)

          by TarPitt ( 217247 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @12:38PM (#34722888)

          Relevant quote from 1984:

          With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality. As soon as this was touched upon in any way she was capable of great acuteness. Unlike Winston, she had grasped the inner meaning of the Party's sexual puritanism. It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship. The way she put it was:

          'When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simpIy sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?'

        • Re:welcome to china (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Khashishi ( 775369 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @05:59PM (#34725292) Journal

          It's funny. You have some picture of the Chinese government as an evil mastermind, calculating every move to his advantage. It's a lot simpler than that. The laws largely reflect the attitudes of the population. A lot of Chinese people (just as a lot of Americans) feel that porn is morally bankrupt and want to see it go away. In America, various guarantees of liberties like the Bill of Rights prevent lawmakers from simply banning whatever the majority doesn't like. But in China, these safeguards don't exist.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I find it odd that the ChiCom government should CARE about porn.

        Any insights on that one?

        Let the citizens fap in peace and they won't rebel, while profiteering from said fappage could enrich the oligarchy.

        I find it odd that the U.S. government should CARE about certain drugs.

        Any insights on that one?

        Let the citizens get stoned/ripped/trashed/high in peace and they won't rebel, while profiteering from said legalization and taxation of said controlled substances could enrich the oligarchy.

        I think both questions have the same answer.

        • Drug addiction destroys people. If you don't know this, all it means is you've not taken the time to meet and deal with addicts. I encourage you to do so, I encourage everyone to do so. Do a bit of volunteer work, meet a few addicts and see the depths that addiction can cause someone to sink to.

          The reason is because it is something that needs to be considered with regards to drugs. While the US's war on drugs is quite silly in its present state, in particular since non-addictive drugs like marijuana are ban

          • Let's stipulate that drug addiction destroys people. Is the prohibition working to prevent that? Is it your job to prevent me from destroying myself? Can you?

          • There are many drugs that destroy people addicted to them, true. Thing is, lengthy prison terms also destroy people...

            • I am saying that due to the destructive nature of some drugs, it isn't as simple as "Just legalize it and let everything work itself out." That is fine for marijuana and other like substances. While abuse of any substance, those included, can cause problems they are not the sort of addictive things that will cause immediate or widespread harm. However that is not true for things like Heroin, Crystal Meth and so on. These are things that are literally so addictive that one use can hook you and that can have

      • Re:welcome to china (Score:5, Insightful)

        by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @12:12PM (#34722710) Journal

        I find it odd that the ChiCom government should CARE about porn.

        Any insights on that one?

        Obviously, in China the rich and powerful can get as much pussy as they want. Denying the same to the working classes/masses is useful, as a frustrated sexual libido (in China, there is a lack of women, at the moment) can be focused very easily. It is how you control these masses, by promising them a bright future ("more (than 0) pussy") or channeling the rage against Japan, capitalist imperialism etc. whatever is convenient.

        Same thing in Islamist societies: the rich and powerful can have multiple wives, necessarily removing them from the pool for the general populace, who then believes in 72 virgins in another dimension, and all they have to do, is be exceptionally good Muslims (blow oneself up).

        These are methods to obscure the reality of the situation, to deflect the anger from those who really deserve it.

      • The Chinese Communist Party initially took pride in its efforts to end the exploitation of Chinese women, and women formed a big part of the revolutionary movement. Now the CCP takes pride in its past and present efforts in this area. I can understand why they do not allow pornography in China, because in a country with such an economy, it is only the poor women who are exploited and forced into lifestyles of prostitution and pornography. They just get by with the money they earn, and are then tossed out wh
      • Despite how it may seem, it isn't the goal of every member of the Chinese politburo to enrich themselves by keeping the poor under control. Even under the worst days of Mao, there were still members who had the goal of making China strong, raising the poor, and helping people (I like to point out Zhou Enlai, but some people disagree with me).

        In many ways China is a very conservative place. Culturally the use of makeup was discouraged, and it was a long time before 'racy' magazines like Vogue were allowed

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zedrick ( 764028 )
      Source? Everybody "knows" this is the case in certain arabic countries, but the PRC? Never seen that claim before (about today's PRC government I mean, it's well known fact that Mao had a lot of girls.... available.)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by wan9xu ( 1829310 )
        sorry, i'm not going to translate all that news for you. so you'll need to:

        step 1: learn chinese.

        step 2: search news using keywords "corrupt official" (pinyin: tan1 guan1) and word for "lover" (pinyin: qing2 fu 4). slashdot apparently doesn't take any chinese characters.

        step 3: read.

    • They might not have porn but they can still get screwed by the government.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kesuki ( 321456 )

      porn is overrated what is so great about watching a couple people mating for fun? or just one nude person posing sexily?

      then again i am 33 years old and i've never coupled anyone. i really need help changing that around, a lack of good bedroom dancing can bring around self destructive thoughts like suicide.

  • It's going to take... *days* to restore all those sites in a way that can't be censored.

  • Priorities (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ArcherB ( 796902 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @10:49AM (#34721958) Journal

    You would think that a country intent on controlling it's population growth would encourage fapping.

  • Coming to the US and EU soon (Score:4, Insightful)

    by commodore64_love ( 1445365 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @10:50AM (#34721980) Journal

    Net Neutrality? Or Fairness Doctrine? Nah. The FCC has been doing this since the 1950s, before those buzzwords even existed. In the same fashion they censor radio and television, they will soon be doing the same thing China is doing: censoring the "filthy nudie pics" from the web.

    Of course they should not be able to do. CATV and internet are PRIVATE domains so the FCC should keep their hands off. But they won't. Our US and EU politicians are no different than Chinese politicians - they all have avarice and ambition - love of money & love of power. They'll censor the porn off the net and justify it as "protecting the children".

    • Won't somebody think of the children? Oh, wait... 4chan /b/ already does that... and in this context too.

    • Re:Coming to the US and EU soon (Score:5, Insightful)

      by zero_out ( 1705074 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @11:46AM (#34722506)

      Now you're just spreading FUD. The FCC should be preventing this stuff from showing up where it isn't expected, but it's not trying to prevent porn from being on the internet, nor is it trying to prevent it from entering your home via your TV, as long as it's clearly gated. The FCC doesn't prevent your local cable company from providing you with porn. It prevents it from being broadcast openly to anyone with a TV, who can easily stumble upon it unwillingly. That's why a breast can't be displayed during the Super Bowl. It's the wrong place and the wrong time. Families will watch the Super Bowl, including kids, because it's considered to be "relatively" safe. Although, the FCC should be doing more about the commercials shown during the event.

      If you want to view porn, that's up to you, and nobody should prevent you from doing so, as long as it's behind a door that says "here there be porn." That way, I and my wards won't stumble upon it without my expressed consent. To say that the FCC is trying to prevent it from being provided to you AT ALL is a gross overstatement, and just plain FUD.

      • Re:Coming to the US and EU soon (Score:5, Insightful)

        by N0Man74 ( 1620447 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @01:55PM (#34723460)

        That's why a breast can't be displayed during the Super Bowl. It's the wrong place and the wrong time. Families will watch the Super Bowl, including kids, because it's considered to be "relatively" safe. Although, the FCC should be doing more about the commercials shown during the event.

        If you want to view porn, that's up to you, and nobody should prevent you from doing so, as long as it's behind a door that says "here there be porn." That way, I and my wards won't stumble upon it without my expressed consent.

        The fact that you follow up an example of a nip slip during a musical performance with an argument about accidentally seeing porn just goes to show you how screwed up our perception of simple nudity is in this country.

        Nudity is NOT porn. A "wardrobe malfunction" is not porn.

        Porn and simple nudity are two very different things and my mind boggles as to why so many people don't seem to get that.

      • If you want to view porn, that's up to you, and nobody should prevent you from doing so, as long as it's behind a door that says "here there be porn." That way, I and my wards won't stumble upon it without my expressed consent.

        Simple method has been around for many/many years...knocking on the door...then waiting till told to enter.

      • Families will watch the Super Bowl, including kids, because it's considered to be "relatively" safe. Although, the FCC should be doing more about the commercials shown during the event.

        Maybe that consideration needs to be changed to reflect reality.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ejtttje ( 673126 )
      Yeah, you know how power hates a vacuum... If only there was a way to codify that no one was allowed to filter/delay packets being routed, since the regional ISP monopolies are looking to rewrite the peering rules which have so far prevented this, and if they don't it's only a matter of time until the gov't tries to protect-the-children or some such BS. We really want the ISPs to be common carriers, maybe we should make an Internet "Bill of Rights" which says no further regulation is allowed, even by the g

    • Our US and EU politicians are no different than Chinese politicians - they all have avarice and ambition - love of money & love of power. They'll censor the porn off the net and justify it as "protecting the children".

      I'm certain the multi-billion dollar porn industry will gladly accept the curtailing of their business with a smile and just go back to minimum wage jobs without a fuss.

  • Huhhhuhuhuhuhuhhh.

    "Wang"

  • Ok, here is a question: Is this actually different in other western countries?

    As far as I know in Germany for example you are not allowed to publish porn on the net unless you make sure that people under 18 don't have access it. To confirm to this criteria it isn't enough to just add an agegate, but instead it requires things like sending credit card info, PostIdent (you show your Id-card at a post office and post office confirms your identity to the website) or something else that is much more secure, thus essentially removing porn from the public Internet.

    Now this of course doesn't mean that there isn't porn on the net in Germany, there is tons of it as the net isn't filtered, but I don't think many of it is hosted in Germany by German companies.

    • Re:Is that different in other countries? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Palmsie ( 1550787 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @11:12AM (#34722204)

      Yes, and I think the point is, they are equally ridiculous, not equally intelligent.

    • In the U.S. porn (not just nudity but actual sex) is posted publicly on the web for everyone to see.

      Ditto on cable television (although most channels blur it out). There is no requirement that it be blocked from the eyes of children or teenagers..... that is considered the responsibility of the parent using NetNanny or TV Channel Locks.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mangu ( 126918 )

      As far as I know in Germany for example you are not allowed to publish porn on the net unless you make sure that people under 18 don't have access it. To confirm to this criteria it isn't enough to just add an agegate, but instead it requires things like sending credit card info

      Hmmm, not quite. If you look closely at those sites that require your credit card info you'll see they have ulterior motives.

      In the same page that says "this site is entirely FREE, we only need your credit card number to make sure you are over the age of 18" if you scroll all the way down you'll see in small letters "this site is free for three days, after that your credit card will be billed at the rate of $18 / month" or something like that.

      No one asks for you credit card number unless they are intending

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by grumbel ( 592662 )

        No one asks for you credit card number unless they are intending to charge you.

        In Germany there is an age verification system based on Stored-value cards (Geldkarte) used for cigarette machines, but indeed credit card don't seem to be used for age verification and the Geldkarte, while valid in theory for online stuff, doesn't seem to be much used in practice.

        A little Googling seems to indicate that its basically just PostIdent and sending photocopies of your Id Card. Services like http://ueber18.de/ [ueber18.de] or http://x-check.de/ [x-check.de] also want you bank info, but they don't use that for age verific

    • In Canada, all thats required is a disclaimer saying "Are you over 18? Click continue - or click here to go away".

  • ...always blocking access to my shitty Chinese porn sites.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • They couldn't have gotten another guy without the first name Wang for this story? That is priceless.

  • Just a drop in the bucket (Score:3)

    by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Friday December 31, 2010 @12:02PM (#34722640) Journal
    Pornography has been around as long as humans has been around. China is wasting it's time trying to stamp it out.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ecuador ( 740021 )

      Well, given the fact that pornography requires at least the technology of (rock?) painting, I would guess it is more recent than the human race. But I can fix your statement for you:

      Prostitution has been around as long as humans has been around. US is wasting it's time trying to stamp it out.

      (Not to mention additionally endangering the professional women as they require more "protection" with their vocation being illegal)

      • Everybody's got to nit-pick, don't they? Fine.

        Prostitution has been around as long as humans has been around. Humans are wasting it's time trying to stamp it out.

        There, that about cover it? Sheesh.

        • Ah, fuck me. I can't even English worth a damn this week. *sigh* one more try:

          Prostitution has been around almost as long as humans have been around. Humans are wasting their time trying to stamp it out.

  • All governments, including our own, always make illegal some ubiquitous, harmless activity so that there is always an excuse to round up large parts of the population at any time. In China, it's porn. Here, it's drug laws,.soon to include "questioning homeland security" or "revealing K-Street Lobbying contributions" to congress.

  • where the age of the Enlightenment was before 1776.
  • I see again and again in Slashdot's China stories, the common strain of "But America is worse and we shouldn't talk about China at all!" Come on guys, we can talk about something other than ourselves once in a while. Face it, America is NOT at the root of everything evil, including China. Sometimes, the Chinese even talk about their own porn laws without even once comparing their laws to American laws. Heck, a few of them aren't even educated in how the American system of government works! So give the

  • I used to watched a lot of porn. I would start my download at night and wake up to a whole new collection in the morning, giddy as a kid on Christmas. I used to even get excited when I got porn with Asian girls.

    For a while.

    Clip after clip it seemed that these girls simply didn't have their heart into it....like they didn't actually want to be there. They'd be looking down at the ground seemingly at another place in their heads, maybe trying to escape what's being done (except for the shit-eaters...they real

  • Censoring the internet for porn? I guess Wang Chen won't be doing the "Wang Chung" tonight....

  • I just wake up (ya, it's almost 2pm), getting stoned (wake & bake!) and this is the sort of news I see?

    Mr Wang and Porn.

    No, I didn't read the article, no need.

    Mr. Wang has a problem with porn.

    Though maybe his problem would be fixed by a name change, but what do I know?

    I'm sure he does good work.

  • I wish I could express my opinion of Chinese law and government but it would be pornographic. Besides I don't want that stuff on my shoe.

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