Sina Weibo, Sohu Blog punished for spreading porn

Beijing has imposed "severe punishments" on Sina Weibo and Sohu Blog for allowing obscene and indecent content to spread on their platforms, according to xinhuanet.com.

A Sina Weibo account named "Qingsishe" was found to have posted more than 20 erotic stories on a photo blog format, which presents text in photos to break the 140-character limit on regular posts.

China closes 1.8 m networking accounts in porn crackdown

Law enforcement also found several accounts, including one called "yang2019" at Sohu Blog, spreading pornographic and violent content.

Authorities also discovered information regarding prostitution at Wechat and Vdian, a new platform allowing users to run businesses on smart phones.

These newly developing social media applications have made the spread of pornographic content more insidious, said Qin Yongming, an official participating in the crackdown.

China has launched the "Cleaning the Web 2014" campaign this year. A total of 82 websites have been punished for spreading or allowing unhealthy content, including Sina, which was fined 5.08 million yuan ($815,000) and stripped of some online publication licenses in April.