Censorship pays: China's state newspaper expands lucrative online scrubbing business

FILE PHOTO: A man holding a smartphone walks past the headquarters of Chinese state newspaper People's Daily in Beijing, China October 6, 2018. Picture taken October 6, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer

BEIJING (Reuters) - People.cn, the online unit of China's influential People's Daily, is boosting its numbers of human internet censors backed by artificial intelligence to help firms vet content on apps and adverts, capitalising on its unmatched Communist Party lineage.

Demand for online censoring services provided by Shanghai-listed People.cn has soared since last year after China tightened its already strict online censorship rules.