BEIJING: China will punish Internet companies Tencent Holdings Ltd, Youku Tudou Inc and Baidu Inc’s iQiyi for hosting videos containing violence and pornography, which it said causes juvenile delinquency.
The offending material is primarily Japanese animation on the video streaming websites of Tencent, Youku Tudou, iQiyi, Sohu.com Inc and Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp Beijing (LeTV), the Ministry of Culture said on its website.
The ministry’s animation “blacklisting” is part of a broader campaign to control Internet content. That includes eradicating material deemed damaging to society and the ruling Communist Party, which cyber security experts say oversees the world’s most sophisticated Internet censorship.
The titles in question ‘Blood-C’, ‘Terror in Resonance’ and ‘High school of the Dead’ include scenes of violence, pornography, terrorism and crimes against public morality, the ministry said.
‘Blood-C’ depicts girls fighting monsters, heavy blood-letting, and the severing of limbs and beheading, while ‘High school of the Dead’ features borderline-pornographic imagery, the ministry said.
The ministry said it would despatch agencies to carry out punishment according to the law, even though the companies are merely suspected of hosting pornographic content. It did not detail what the punishment would be.
Tencent, Youku Tudou, iQiyi and LeTV were not available for immediate comment. Sohu declined to provide immediate comment.
On April 1, China’s online video sites will be subject to new regulations tightening control of foreign content. Websites which have not sought approval for their foreign programmes by then will be prohibited from broadcasting the media.
While the latest regulations apply to domestic companies, experts say China’s attempts to control and censor the Internet has evolved into attacks on overseas websites deemed a threat by the government.
