Chinese government shuts down thousands of porn sites

Chinese government has shut down thousands of websites and social media accounts containing obscene material, in a bid to purge the internet of online pornography.

The nation's state media services has announced the progress of its 'Cleaning the Web 2014' campaign, which has resulted in the closure of 110 websites and more than 3,300 accounts containing 'obscene' material since January, Independent reported.

Online pornography is illegal in China and the latest drive, which is supposed to last until November, follows repeated attempts to censor sites displaying the material.

Recently, the government closed social messaging networks run by outspoken communists, while in 2013, the state attempted to purge the spread of online rumours in a move seen as a tool to punish critics of the ruling Communist Party.