China punishes 422 porn websites

China has punished 422 websites as part of a national crackdown on online pornography, the State Internet Information Office said Tuesday.

Since the beginning of this year, the office has closed more than 4,800 accounts on social networking services including WeChat, Weibo, blogs and online forums, Xinhua reported, adding that over 9,000 advertisements and 300,000 pieces of information with pornographic content were deleted.

The "Cleaning the Web 2014" campaign scheduled to last from April to November, is in response to the persistent spread of pornography online despite previous crackdowns.

"The campaign is not an aim, but a mean to mobilise the entire society and coordinate all the forces of government departments to solve outstanding problems in relatively short time," said an official.

The State Internet Information Office has been encouraging internet users to report pornography, and most of the cases are based on reports by netizens, he said, adding that the office receives more than 3,000 reports every day.

Authorities will promote a long-term mechanism to strengthen management of the internet, the official added.