One of China's social media giants cleaned its platform in March by deleting more than 1.5 million posts and closing about 85,000 accounts that violated the law in a move that was hailed by experts.
"The move by Weibo protected users' rights and interests, and safeguarded the normal order in society," Zhu Wei, a professor from the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, took the action in practicing the Cyber Security Law and regulation for microblog services issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China in February, Zhu said.
Sina Weibo registered 392 million active users in 2017, posted Weibo Data Center in late 2017, 15.7 percent of whom were adolescents.
Weibo's system intercepted 295,000 pornographic posts and closed the 7,362 accounts involved, some of which are identity-verified users, according to the latest community report.
These accounts guided users to a third-party platform and provided erotic online services in which underage females were involved.
Many accounts posted illegal videos and content, some of which involved Internet fraud. China Central Television reported in July 2017 that 39 netizens were the victims of such scams and had been swindled out of 670,000 yuan ($107,000) in one month.
Zhu said that Weibo's move deserves praise, adding that "It could have attracted more active users if keeps that kind of illegal content, but it actively carried out rectification and reforms."
Weibo's official administrator account began releasing reports on its cleaning operations since June 2016.
