Chinese social media giant Sina Weibo has reversed its ban on publishing homosexual content, days after announcing the policy. The service, which has
Chinese social media giant Sina Weibo has reversed its ban on publishing homosexual content, days after announcing the policy. The service, which has nearly 400 million users, drew outrage for lumping gay-themed content in with violent and pornographic material.
“There followed a storm of online criticism of the site,” NPR’s Rob Schmitz reports from Shanghai.
The company’s stock also took a hit. Weibo’s shares fell sharply on the Nasdaq market on Friday, losing nearly 7 percent of their value and closing at $114.18. After Monday’s reversal, shares had risen more than 2 percent by 2:30 p.m. ET.
On Friday, a notice from Weibo’s administrator justified the ban as part of an effort to make the online environment clean and “harmonious,” saying it had already “cleared” more than 56,000 violations and closed more than 100 accounts. But today, the administrator’s account said the “clean-up” of the site would focus on pornography and violence — not homosexual content.
People who were angry with the decision to remove homosexual content from the platform used hashtags such as “I am gay” or “I am illegal,” according to the social media news site What’s On Weibo .
