China's Weibo suspends portals

China is tightening controls over internet content in an effort to maintain "social stability", limit pornography and the unauthorised dissemination of news.

China's Sina Weibo has been ordered to move several portals offline for a week after spreading obscene and wrongly oriented content, the internet watchdog says.

The government has been tightening controls over internet content as part of efforts to maintain "social stability", taking on "vulgar" and pornographic content as well as the unauthorised dissemination of news.

"Content of wrong public opinion orientation, obscenity and ethnic discrimination continued to spread on Sina Weibo," the Beijing office of the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement late on Saturday.

In a separate statement, Weibo said it accepted the criticism and was suspending key portals such as its hot search site and portal on celebrities and their personal lives for a week.

China shut down as many as 128,000 websites that contained obscene and other "harmful" information in 2017, state media has reported.


Share
Published 28 January 2018 2:20pm
Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world