Internet watchdog removes millions of harmful messages

Almost 45 million of harmful online messages were removed and more than 490,000 illegal online accounts were canceled since a campaign to make internet environment cleaner was launched by China’s top cyberspace watchdog in January.

According to the Cyberspace Administration, 1,462 websites carrying improper or illegal information were shut down or ordered to modify content.

“We identified some pornographic content on the websites after reviews,” the authority said in a statement released on Wednesday. “We then asked lower-level internet affairs regulators, including our branches in Beijing and Shanghai, to deal with the cases, such as urging the websites to clean the content or shut down.”

The crackdown is not only to make the online environment much cleaner, but also to push authorities to play role in internet governance, it added.

At the beginning of this year, the top internet authority started the six-month campaign on harmful and illegal information in cyberspace, which mainly targets 12 kinds of improper information, including rumors and pornography, violence, terrorism or gambling.

The crackdown focused on websites, apps, messaging tools and livestreaming platforms.