As part of an initiative dubbed “Cleaning the Web 2014,” authorities are closing websites, while tech companies are hiring young people to evaluate erotic content — and receiving a lot of interest.

A nationwide crackdown on pornography in China, a campaign known as “Cleaning the Web 2014,” has shut 110 websites and deleted 3,300 accounts on China-based social networking services, as well as online forums.

Online companies are hiring young people of solid character to act as pornography watchdogs, weeding out shocking images of people having sex, or even bikini-clad young women, to protect public morals.

On the Anhui province website, ahlife.com, Liu Chunqi, a police officer who works as a “sexual content appraiser” in the city of Harbin, said it was a dreadful job.

“When I do the appraisal, all I am thinking about is whether the content meets the standards for sexual content, or whether the content in the video or disc is publicly advertising sex, or showing sex. Some people think it’s just watching porn, but it’s not. Sometimes it makes me throw up,” he said, without further elaborating.

Online censorship is a tricky issue in China, home to the world’s largest online population. The government likes the business benefits of the Internet, but dislikes the platform it offers to people who think differently from the ruling Communist Party.

Rights activists say the porn crackdown is just another excuse to step up limits on freedom of expression as part of the vast system of online control known as the Great Firewall of China.

The “GFW,” which bans Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other overseas websites, also bans politically sensitive words and aims to stamp out any form of online dissent. It makes using the Internet in China slow and often frustrating when trying to do even routine tasks.

Last week, Sina Corp was handed the toughest punishment yet, after Beijing authorities landed the online giant with a fine of $800,000 and removed some of its online publication licenses.

“We have revoked the two licenses of Sina.com, including those for Internet publication and network distribution of audiovisual programs,” said Zhou Huilin, deputy director of the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.

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