Just months after a politically charged profanity embarrassed mainland authorities by becoming a huge online hit, censors have struck back with yet another crackdown on 'indecent and unlawful' internet content, particularly parodies.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) issued a directive on Monday highlighting prohibitions on 31 categories of online audio and video content, from violence to pornography, terrorism and content that might incite ethnic discrimination, hatred and undermine ethnic unity and social stability.
Many netizens said the directive was in response to the embarrassment of the extraordinarily popular cultural phenomenon of the 'grass-mud horse', or caonima, which is a homonym for a vulgar expression used to mock the government's 'harmonious society' slogan and protest against internet control.
The phenomenon has proved so popular that it has spawned a grass-mud-horse industry of videos, cartoons and stuffed toys.
In its directive, Sarft said it was targeting content that 'publicises passive and decadent values and exaggerates ignorance and backwardness of ethnic groups and the dark sides of society'. Any material that disparaged People's Liberation Army officers, police and law and order workers, or parodied revolutionary and state leaders was also prohibited.
The administration called attention to a regulation originally issued in late 2007 that took effect in February last year in which video websites were urged to 'hire high-quality staff to censor and examine content and put emergency procedures in place' to handle parodies, music videos, short films, or cartoons.
