Police in China's capital say they will start patrolling the web using animated officers that pop up on a user's browser and walk, bike or drive across the screen warning them to stay away from illegal internet content - which includes LGBT sites. Starting on the first of September, the cartoon alerts will appear every half hour on 13 of China's top internet portals, and by the end of the year will appear on all websites registered with Beijing servers, says the Beijing Public Security Ministry. China stringently polices the internet for material and content that the ruling Communist Party finds politically or morally threatening. Previously the government has shut down LGBT Web sites including several containing information on HIV/AIDS. One of the sites, tzgay.ful.cn, received 100,000 hits per day, and was frequently used by people to discuss coming out. Despite the controls, gay, nudity, profanity, illegal gambling and pirated music, books and film have proliferated on Chinese internet servers. The animated police appear to be designed to startle Web surfers and remind them that authorities closely monitor Web activity. However, the Ministry's statement did not say whether there were plans to boost monitoring further. Ref: 365gay.com (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 30th August 2007 - 12:39pm