China’s online censorship makes its way to e-commerce as Pinduoduo cleans up

China isn’t limited to just censoring content-generating platforms within the country. Pinduoduo, the social e-commerce upstart, launched a cleanup campaign to remove all the products that are related to violence or pornography, local media is reporting.

The purge follows an investigation published by state-backed legal media, which reveals that lots of violent and pornographic products are on sale on the platform, such as lethal knives, pseudo base stations, erotic games, and sex dolls.

Before the media coverage, Pinduoduo has been seeking to address this issue, according to the company. As of May this year, the firm screened merchandise from 2180 stores that may sell “illegal” goods and have placed sanctions or shut down the relevant retailers, the company told local media.

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