Anti-porn campaign blocks over 18,000 websites

Some 18,401 illegal websites were blocked during a campaign against pornography that started in April, state media reported. Of those, 8,808 were blocked for disseminating pornographic, illicit or fraudulent pictures and information and 9,593 were blocked because they were unregistered. The figures were disclosed by China Telecom, one of the country's two internet access providers, which was involved in the campaign. The campaign was started by the Ministry of Public Security and nine other departments on April 12. It also required top portals like Sina to conduct "self-examinations" and shut down problematic channels.