China’s cyber watchdog has shut down nine instant messaging apps for spreading pornographic information or facilitating prostitution, as part of an ongoing effort to clean up the country’s cyberspace.
The new campaign is aimed at instant messaging services for spreading illegal information, anonymous registration, fraud and facilitating offline malpractice, according to an announcement on the website of the Cyberspace Administration of China on Tuesday. It said some of the services posed a “severe threat to public security”.