China begins renewed effort to crack down on online porn

China on Sunday announced to launch a renewed campaign against the spread of pornography on the Internet and asked websites and portals to clean up their links to avoid shutdown. The campaign 'Cleaning the Web 2014' will conduct thorough checkups on websites, search engines and mobile application stores, Internet TV USB sticks, and set-top boxes, the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said in a circular. The campaign will last until November, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. All online texts, pictures, videos and advertisements with pornographic content will be deleted, according to the circular. Websites, web channels and columns will be shut down or have their administrative license revoked if they are found to produce or spread pornographic information, it said. Websites, telecom operators and web portals were asked to conduct a self-examination instantly and clean up information and links. The campaign is in response to the persistent spread of pornography online despite multiple previous campaigns. PTI