China fights pornography on social media

BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China's leading task-force for fighting pornography Monday said it would work with the Ministry of Public Security to investigate 12 cases concerning online porn. < The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications found lawbreakers sold pornographic videos through social network apps such as WeChat and QQ.

In one case in east China's Jiangsu Province, 52 people were arrested for setting up porn live-streaming platforms on cell phones, profiting by over 3.5 million yuan (557,000 U.S. dollars). The police found suspects scattered in more than 20 provinces.

In another case, suspects in east China's Zhejiang Province set up a website for spreading porn videos and forwarded the website link to 126 WeChat groups, each with 500 accounts. The suspects earned more than 10 million yuan of illicit gains.

The office said most of the lawbreakers who operate live-porn video streaming platforms tried to escape punishment by changing accounts and IPs, using overseas servers, or spreading content in social media chat groups.

"Spreading porn online does harm to both the physical and mental health of the people, especially adolescents, disrupts market order, tramples law and compromises social morals, and hence is bound to face severe crackdown by the police," the office said. Endtiem