China targets pornography on cloud storage

A staffer of an Internet company identifies porn photos on a social networking website. [Photo/IC]

BEIJING -- The government will launch a campaign to address the emerging practice of sharing and hosting pornography via cloud storage services.

According to the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications, website administrators, police, as well as industrial and publication authorities will tighten supervision of cloud storage enterprises, and hold them accountable for the security of their services.

The office released details on six cases that involved individuals profiting from the sale of account names and passwords to cloud storage hosting pornography.

In one case, a court in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, sentenced Liu Hangjie to three years plus six months in prison for selling access to pornography hosted on a cloud storage site.

Liu was selling individual accounts that had access to over 10,000 pornographic video clips for 50 yuan ($7.68).

Cloud storage services used by criminals include those run by Internet security firm, Qihoo 360, and online video website LeTV.