An e-book website in China, which also carries gay fiction, has been ordered to remove some the sections of its site because it has been deemed as ‘spreading obscene information’.
The Jinjiang Literature City has been ticked off by The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications for carrying “illegal content” which the watchdog did not specify.
The watchdog said those responsible for producing and spreading it would be held accountable.
“There are ongoing issues in the realm of internet literature with the spreading of obscene content,” it said in a statement on Weibo. “Some Internet companies lack content supervision and have crossed the line repeatedly.”
The website, which was founded in 2003, functions as a platform for unpublished authors to upload their work to promote themselves to publishers. It has regularly used self-censorship to manage its content and allow users to report books or authors considered offensive or inappropriate.
The website said it will comply with the order.
Pornography is illegal in China and an erotic writer was sentenced to 10 years in prison for writing and selling a gay porn novel, which sparked a debate as the sentence was more than what rapists received in the country.