China shuts down 110 porn websites in crackdown

China has shut down 110 websites as part of a national crackdown on online pornography, state authorities said today.

The State Internet Information Office said some 3,300 accounts on China-based social networking services, such as WeChat and Sina Weibo, as well as online forums have been deleted in the recently launched "Cleaning the Web 2014" campaign, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Close to 7,000 advertisements and 200,000 texts with pornographic content were also deleted.

"Pornography does great harm to minors and the social ethos," read a circular issued by the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications at the start of the campaign.
 

The campaign is in response to the persistent spread of online pornography despite multiple previous crackdowns, it said.