Epoch Times
By Gu Yunyin

China Mobile in Shanghai announced that it will censor text messages and forward offending messages to the police.
China Mobile in Shanghai announced that it will censor text messages and forward offending messages to the police.(Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images)

China Mobile, the largest mobile phone company in China, recently said it is censoring text messages based on a list of keys words provided by public security agencies.

A user’s text message account may be disabled if the content of a message is deemed “indecent” or “sexually explicit.” Human rights advocates and attorneys say the practice is illegal and only an excuse by Chinese authorities to conduct censorship.

Text messaging has been disabled on more than 70,000 phones in Shanghai, according to the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily. An employee with China Mobile in Shanghai told The Epoch Times on Jan. 19 that some cell-phone users whose service has been disabled have come to the company to have it restored.

The company has issued orders about the handling of these requests: “The person must go to the public security agencies to verify the content of the message in question,” according to a Jan. 16 report in the Shanghai Youth Daily.    more …