China: The monitoring of Mobile SMS

According to Xinhuanet's report, Mobile China Shanghai branch will start suspending a mobile phone's SMS function if they find the number distribute “vulgar”, “pornographic” and other illegal content. The policy implies that all mobile messages would be monitored by the mobile company and made accessible to the government authority.

The report stated that the definition of illegal content is based on the 13 areas listed by the CIIRC, including

1. Content that expose and depict sexual organs;
2. Contents that imply sexual behavior or that seduce or insult a person
3. Content with sexual implication and describe sexual intercourses
4. Nudity
5. Nipple slips or up-skirt kind of content
6. Vulgar and sexy subject line for attracting views
7. Censored or banned words, video and movie clips
8. Information related with one night stand, partner shifting and SM behavior
9. Pornographic animation
10. Violent and insulting content
11. Ads on illegal drug and sexual transmitted disease treatment
12. Contents that invade other's privacy
13. Links, photos and texts that recommend vulgar and pornographic websites.

The mobile company stressed that “In theory, whenever a yellow SMS is sent out, it would be detected by the system and the mobile number's SMS function would be suspended”. The company will then handover the case to the government authority for further investigation.

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