China is stepping up its efforts to rein in the country’s Internet, singling out Tencent Holdings Ltd’s (騰訊) popular news app for spreading vulgar information while shutting down more than 700 Web sites and thousands of apps in the span of just three weeks.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has scrubbed the Web of more than 7 million items since Jan. 3, deleting more than 9,300 smartphone apps to screen out information deemed inappropriate or harmful, the watchdog said in a notice distributed to media.
Tencent’s Tian Tian Kuai Bao (天天快報), which means quick daily news, was singled out for spreading “vulgar and low-brow content that was harmful and damaging to the Internet ecosystem” the agency said.
It also criticized Huaban (花瓣), a photo-sharing social network, as having “serious ecosystem problems.”
Huaban said on its Web site its online service had been temporarily taken down, until Feb. 15, for upgrades.
The latest raft of shutdowns, part of a six-month campaign intended to eradicate “vulgarity” from the domestic Internet, stands out for its scale and speed.
The CAC in November last year scrubbed 9,800 social media accounts of independent news providers for violations that included spreading politically harmful information and falsifying the history of the Chinese Communist Party.
Baidu Inc (百度) and Sohu.com Ltd (搜狐) were among those ordered to suspend a plethora of news services.
Beijing has increasingly taken a hard line as the country’s Internet ecosystem flourishes, instigating crackdowns on video games and social media that have hurt industry leaders such as WeChat (微信) operator Tencent and Bytedance Ltd (字節跳動), the world’s largest start-up.
They represent the most severe digital crackdown in the country’s history, shuttering services or temporarily forcing them from app stores for spreading everything from crude jokes to banned information.
Tencent and other Web sites have been ordered to overhaul their operations, the CAC said in its notice, without elaborating.
Tencent shares yesterday fell 0.8 percent in Hong Kong.
They had slid as much as 2.4 percent on Tuesday after the company’s products were left out again when regulators green-lit the latest batch of online games.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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