China Censors More Than 13,000 Websites in Three Years

Communist China has shut down more than 13,000 websites in three years, according to a report.

Reuters reported on Sunday that “China has closed more than 13,000 websites since the beginning of 2015 for breaking the law or other rules,” while the “vast majority of people support government efforts to clean up cyberspace.”

The affected sites include those that allegedly spread pornography and violence, though any content that goes against “national honor”, “disturbs economic or social order”, or attempts to overthrow “the socialist system” is also banned in the country, while foreign social networks and news outlets are completely censored.

“As well as the 13,000 websites shut down, almost 10 million accounts had also been closed by websites,” Reuters explained, adding, “More than 90 percent of people surveyed supported government efforts to manage the internet, with 63.5 percent of them believing that in recent years there has been an obvious reduction in harmful online content.”

In August 2015, Chinese police arrested around 15,000 civilians for “internet crimes” during an operation code-named “Cleaning the Internet.” This year, Chinese company Tencent removed two automated chat-bots for “criticizing the ruling Communist Party and promoting democracy.”

Last November, Freedom House reported that two-thirds of people on the planet live under government Internet censorship, while Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year.

After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) expressed concern in October that Apple “may be enabling the Chinese government’s censorship and surveillance,” Apple CEO Tim Cook praised China and its censored Internet at a conference in the country this month.

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.