Police seize 62 in social-networking porn crackdown

Police in Beijing and Guangzhou have detained 62 suspects for using social networks to organize prostitution or spread pornography, according to China's anti-pornography authorities.

Beijing police have busted four operations and captured 25 suspects for organizing prostitution via microblogs and instant messaging services since a campaign against pornography began in August, according to a statement jointly released by the National Anti-pornography and Anti-illegal Publications Office and the Ministry of Public Security,

The other 37 suspects were seized in south China's Guangdong Province for similar offenses.

With a 'zero tolerance' attitude, police have been finding porn providers on social networks as fast and early as possible to stop the spread of the material.

On Wednesday 14 typical cases were publicized.

In Foshan, a city in Guangdong, 17 suspects were detained on Aug. 25 for using WeChat, China's leading smartphone messaging platform, to disseminate obscene images, post adverts to recruit prostitutes and organize prostitution services. Among them, 11 were held for criminal investigation.

In Dongguan, another Guangdong city, a suspect surnamed Zheng reportedly uploaded 8,951 pornographic images via a Tencent microblog account in April and May and clocked up more than one million visits.

In one case with a twist, four in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, used WeChat to organize prostitution deals and then blackmail clients on three occasions this year. The four are in detention, pending further investigation.

Since August, four Chinese Internet giants, namely Sina, Sohu, Tencent and Xunlei, have been punished for failing to check questionable content disseminated via their products and services.

More than 800 million people use instant messengers in China, sending more than 20 billion pieces of information every day.