BEIJING -- The Ministry of Culture (MOC) Tuesday announced that it had punished a number of companies for hosting obscene, violent or illegal content on the Internet.

In total, 4,313 live feeds on 26 websites run by 23 companies were shut down and another 16,000 live-feed rooms were ordered to rectify their practice, the MOC said, adding that the companies had been forced to terminate contracts with 1,502 online performers.

Douyu.com, which broadcast a live sex show in January; 6.cn; panda.tv; and nine other companies were ordered to cease or remove illegal content that was deemed obscene, violent or that encouraged netizens to break the law.

Eleven other companies were punished for publishing live broadcasts without permission from the cultural department.