SHANGHAI, China — China’s social media giant Weibo announced a sweeping overhaul of its content moderation to target and eliminate any content deemed to be sexual expression, or “soft porn,” after receiving a hefty fine by Chinese internet regulators.
The Cyberspace Administration of China, CNBC reported, announced last week on its official WeChat account that “it had fined Weibo’s operator because some accounts and content has violated relevant laws and regulations.”
On Tuesday, Weibo also announced the creation of a work team dedicated to “identifying and intercepting soft porn content.”
Chinese authorities claim to have fined Weibo up to 44 times this year for supposed content violations, many of them related to public morality legislation, totaling 14.3 million yuan ($2.3 million dollars).
“The platform must rigorously comply with its responsibilities,” China’s main online censorship enforcer admonished, including stepping up efforts to “monitor public information, reinforce the management of the information published by its users and not provide a communication platform for illegal information.”
The Cyberspace Administration of China defined the objectionable material, including what they consider “soft porn,” as “serious content prohibited by national law.”
Weibo told the regulator the company “sincerely accepts the criticism” and promised to “apply the requirements with determination through manual and automated strategies to prevent the publication of soft porn content.”