Hashtag 'I am gay' takes Chinese internet by a storm and here is why

The hashtag campaign was apparently later banned by Chinese micro-blogging website Sina Weibo.

This picture taken on April 16, 2014 shows a man using a laptop at an office of Sina Weibo, widely known as China's version of Twitter, in Beijing. China plans to severely curtail major Internet portal Sina's right to publish online after it "spread pornographic information", authorities said on April 25, in the latest official move to tighten online control. AFP PHOTO / WANG ZHAO / AFP PHOTO / WANG ZHAO

New Delhi: China’s micro-blogging website Sina Weibo said it would remove “homosexual” content from the platform, triggering a massive protest among the Chinese netizens under hashtag “I am gay”. In a statement Sina Weibo had said that it had begun a “clean-up campaign” to remove “illegal” content including “manga and videos with pornographic implications that promote violence or homosexuality.” The severe curtailment of contents, comes after the ruling Communist Party launched a crackdown on the internet to prevent the users from deviating from the core socialist values and social norms. As per reports in the three-month campaign the government will tackle pornographic content and also violent games like ‘Grand Theft Auto’. It is reported that the Sina Weibo is implementing new cybersecurity law and had already removed some 56,240 items. As a result, the enraged Chinese netizens have stormed the internet with the hashtag  ‘I am gay’. As per the reports some 170,1000 Weibo users had used the hashtag, before it as reportedly banned by the platform. The Chinese social media users slammed the discriminatory idea. It was in 1997 that China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, but conservative attitudes remain widespread. People questioned that can homosexuality not come under socialism.