China is no fan of the open Internet, and anyone or thing that tries to defy the rules. Because of this, the country is cracking down on smartphone applications that feature obscenity and pornography, the government said on Tuesday. This move by the government is part of a campaign to clean the Internet, but failure is the likely end game here.
Back in 2013, the Communist Party began cracking down on rumors and pornography due to these things having an alleged bad effect on the country. However, some critics are saying the crackdown is aimed at silencing anti-government sentiments in the country.
The anti-porn campaign once only targeted websites and other materials, but now the government is targeting mobile applications, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight on this wide Internet crackdown.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will encourage companies to remove pornography from mobile apps. Furthermore, China plans to "enhance abilities to discover pornographic and obscene apps" along with improving the process of punishment, says MIIT.
China has the largest Internet population in the world with over 632 million people. At the end of June, this year, the majority of China's Internet users, which is around 83 percent, owns a smartphone and uses it to access the web, this is according to China Internet Network Information Center.
In China, mobile apps are widely used, with WeChat being one of the most popular and most used mobile app in the country. Interestingly enough, WeChat users claim that there are chat groups within the app that are dedicated to the sharing of pornography and other lewd content. Obviously, WeChat owner, Tencent, had nothing to say on the matter.
China's attempt to stop the flow of pornographic content might not turnout as the government hopes. Consider this as fighting a Hydra. If the government cuts off one head, ten more will grow in its space, making it more difficult to contain the situation.
From our viewpoint, there's no way the government will have complete dominion over what Chinese people do on the Internet. In addition, the government should bear in mind that the continuous Internet crackdown in the country could cause for an uprising.
