“I am gay” was seen nearly 300 million times on Sina Weibo before the reversal.
China’s largest social media network has reversed a plan to censor all content about homosexuality in the wake of a massive protest.
On Friday, Sina Weibo — a microblogging platform with nearly 400 million active users, often described as China’s Twitter — announced a “clean-up campaign” that would be removing “illegal” content, including “manga and videos with pornographic implications, promoting violence, or (related to) homosexuality.”
The decision seemed to be a response to efforts by the Chinese government last year to crack down on web content. Last summer, for example, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television (SAPPRFT) sent a notice to online literature platforms that they would be judged based on how well their content promotes “the core values of socialism.” Such regulations have targeted content considered “immoral,” including pornography and erotic fiction, but the dragnet has also caught things like hip hop and the #MeToo movement .
