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15,000 people arrested as part of China's "Cleaning the Internet" program

By Kenny Yeo - on 7 Sep 2015, 10:04am

15,000 people arrested as part of China's "Cleaning the Internet" program

Image source: The Huffington Post

With over 641 million Internet users, no country comes close to having as many Internet users as China.

The Chinese government is notorious for its intolerance to dissent and authorities have just announced that it has arrested over 15,000 people for crimes that "jeopardized Internet security". 

These arrests made are part of a large scale movement to curb cybercrime. Last month, China launched a six month long program called "Cleaning the Internet" which targets websites providing "illegal and harmful information" as well as websites providing advertisements for gambling, pornography, explosives and firearms. 

The program will also focus on cracking major online criminal cases as well as eliminating online gangs. According to authorities, over 66,000 websites and 7400 cases of cybercrime were investigated.

Academics and researchers were not surprised being this move and said that since coming to power in 2013, President Xi Jinping has been unyielding in his control of the country's Internet. The country's ruling Communist Party views the Internet as something that it needs to manage and control.

Source: Reuters

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