BEIJING — Six inspection teams have completed the second round of investigations into online pornography, illegal publications and fake news organizations across 31 Chinese provincial-level regions.
The six teams were made of staff from the anti-pornography watchdog and police, communication, cyberspace administration, customs and press and publications departments. They were tasked with conducting checks to assess the effect of local crackdown campaigns.
The investigation, which took place throughout July, aimed to clean up harmful information online, targeting illegal livestreaming mobile apps and websites circulating pornographic content, according to the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.
The investigation also looked into stores near primary and middle school campuses and fake media and journalists.
Local authorities have responded quickly to the feedback given by the central inspectors. In South China’s Hainan province, popular internet forum Tianya Club and Kdnet.net have been given a time limit to make corrections following the exposure of obscene content on their websites.
In 2016 alone, Chinese law enforcement confiscated over 16 million illegal publications and banned more than 14,000 websites disseminating harmful information.