BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Sina Weibo on Monday reversed a decision to remove gay content after outcry among gay Chinese who say the company had smeared homosexuality by lumping it with pornography as it tried to meet government censorship directives. In response, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocates poured online to criticize the decision using hashtags, open letters and even calls to dump Sina shares. On Monday, Sina said the clean-up would no longer target gay content. The outcry reflects a fear that growing censorship tends to ban all gay content as “dirty,” a setback for efforts to carve out an online space of tolerance for homosexuality in China’s traditionally Confucian society, LGBT advocates say. “The problem with the policy is that it equates LGBT content with porn,” Xiao said on Sunday, adding that she believes the government is not actively anti-LGBT.

Source: Huffington Post April 16, 2018 14:48 UTC