BEIJING — The Chinese government has stepped up a police campaign to crush “illegal and inappropriate content” — which it defines as “online rumors, pornography and superstition” — as the controversial 2022 Beijing Olympic Games kick off.
Last week, the Cyberspace Administration of China vowed to renew “a month-long round of campaigns to police what it considers illegal and inappropriate content and punish accounts that violate the law and disseminate problematic content,” NBC News reported.
The internet regulatory agency this week celebrated the new Year of the Tiger by declaring its mission to clean up the internet and achieve “a healthy, festive and auspicious online environment.”
The crackdown also reportedly resulted in the disappearance of gay dating app Grindr from several app stores in China. Grindr was bought by Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. in 2016, but the U.S. government pressured the Chinese company to sell it back to a California investor group four years later over national security concerns.