China’s social media site Sina Weibo is removing gay and violent content during a three-month clean-up campaign.<\/b>
\nChina\u2019s social media site Sina Weibo is removing gay and violent content during a three-month clean-up campaign.
The platform announced the news on Friday (April 13) on its official administrator\u2019s account, explaining that content being taken down includes pictures, cartoons and text. \ufeff
As a result, #IAmGay is trending in the country, as some 170,000 users protest the\u00a0decision. The announcement has been commented on more than\u00a024,000\u00a0times and was forwarded more than 110,000 times.
One wrote: \u201cI am gay and I\u2019m proud, even if I get taken down there are tens of millions like me!\u201d Some posts were blocked by Weibo, with a message saying that they contained \u201cillegal content\u201d.
Weibo said the move aims to comply with China\u2019s new cyber security law calling for strict data surveillance. The site has so far removed\u00a056,243 pieces of content, shut 108 user accounts and removed 62 topics considered to have violated its standards.
It comes after LGBT people in China slammed Weibo for banning LGBT content from the platform last year .
The micro-blogging platform cracked down on videos which featured same-sex couples by censoring them, following\u00a0 authorities in the country announcing intentions to ban LGBT content from the internet.
The regulations, which block any portrayal of \u201cabnormal\u201d relations between two people of the same-sex, came into play at the start of July 2017.
The ban\u00a0was slapped on sexually explicit content\u00a0as well as more mild\u00a0 depictions of same-sex couples whether\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0in a positive or negative light.<\/p>\n