China bans 16,000 more websites for containing pornography content - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

China has shut down another 16,000 websites on grounds that they were of a pornographic nature. The move is the latest in a string of drives to crack down on pornographic and lewd content appearing on the Internet. Statistics from the International Communication Office of the CPC Central Committee reveal that since the crackdown was launched last December, more than 850,000 pictures and 1.3 million messages with lewd or pornographic content have been deleted. Over 30 online novels and 15 mobile phone games have also been halted. An official with the office said the campaign made significant breakthroughs in striking the profit chains for porn web sites as the lewd content on the Internet in the country were reduced and the tendency of spreading such information through cell phones was kept under control, The China Daily reports. Earlier, the officials had banned 1,414 works of online literature, which were found to contain lewd or pornographic content. as of Wednesday during the latest crackdown. About 30,000 web links to the banned works and 20 online literature websites were closed after scrutiny of about 4,000 literature websites by more than 50 experts organized by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) of China. The banned works either included pornographic content, used provocative or privacy-violating titles to draw attention, or blatantly talked about one-night stands, wife swapping, sex abuses, and violence that disregarded common decency, the GAPP had said.