China has long prevented its citizens from accessing Web content that the government finds objectionable. Now the Communist country is adding celebrity gossip to that list. It has ordered Internet companies, including Tencent and Baidu, to shut down 60 social media accounts that regularly feature celebrity gossip./p>
“Websites must … adopt effective measures to keep in check the problems of the embellishment of private sex scandals of celebrities, the hyping of ostentatious celebrity spending and entertainment, and catering to the poor taste of the public,” explained a social media post by the Beijing Cyberspace Administration. It added that websites should “actively propagate core socialist values, and create an ever-more healthy environment for the mainstream public opinion.”
