批评声浪下,微博取消审查同性恋题材计划

BEIJING — Bowing to intense pressure from millions of internet users, a Chinese social media site said on Monday that it would scrap plans to censor cartoons and video games with gay themes.

北京——迫于数百万网民的巨大压力，中国一家社交媒体网站周一表示，将取消对同性恋题材的漫画和视频游戏的审查计划。

The site, Sina Weibo, had announced on Friday that it would target gay content as part of a campaign to remove pornographic and violent material from its site.

新浪微博曾在上周五宣布，针对其网站上色情和暴力内容的清理行动，也会针对同性恋题材。

But its efforts were almost immediately criticized as discriminatory and repressive, spawning an outpouring of #Iamgay hashtags and slogans like “gays aren’t scary.”

但这一努力几乎立即受到了批评，人们指责其具有歧视性和压制性，还引发了大量的#Iamgay（我是同性恋）标签，以及诸如“同性恋并不可怕”等口号的使用。

On Monday, Weibo said in a post that it would scale back its “cleanup” effort and focus on “pornographic, violent and bloody content” instead of gay material. In a nod to the intense backlash, it thanked internet users for their “discussion and suggestions.”

周一，新浪微博在一篇帖子中表示，将缩小“清理”工作的范围，把重点放在“色情、暴力和血腥内容”上，而不是同性恋的题材上。新浪微博还对强烈的反弹有所表示，它感谢了互联网用户的“讨论和建议”。

The company did not say whether it would continue to delete texts, photos and videos with gay themes, which were also listed as targets in the original announcement. Weibo did not respond to a request for comment.

新浪微博未表示是否会继续删除同性恋主题的文本、照片和视频，这些题材也被最初的声明列为目标。新浪微博没有回复记者的置评请求。

Internet users welcomed the change on Monday. Still, some said the company owed gays an apology.

互联网用户对周一的变化表示欢迎。尽管如此，一些人说，新浪微博应该向同性恋者道歉。

“It is totally insincere,” Bai Fei, a feminist activist in Shanghai, said of the announcement. “They have already harmed us. I want them to stand up and make a public apology.”

“这完全是不真诚的，”上海女权活动人士白飞（音）说。“他们已经伤害了我们。我希望他们站出来公开道歉。”

Others called on the company to restore content that it had already deleted in the campaign, including a popular Weibo account called the Gay Voice, which published cultural news and podcasts for its more than 230,000 followers.

有些人则呼吁新浪微博恢复已被清理行动删除的内容，包括一个名为“同志之声”(Gay Voice)的热门微博帐号，该帐号发布文化新闻和播客，有逾23万名粉丝。

Weibo’s vow to cut gay material prompted an unusually fierce backlash from internet users, who said the campaign would worsen discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in China. Still, some said they saw signs of progress in the company’s decision to change course.

新浪微博要减少同性恋题材内容的表态，引发了网民的强烈反对。他们表示，这种努力将加剧中国对同性恋、双性恋和变性者的歧视。不过，一些人说，他们在公司改变方向的决定上看到了进步的迹象。

Ma Baoli, the founder of Blued, a popular gay dating app, called the uproar a “historic event” in China. He said Weibo’s response showed a gradual change in attitudes toward gay people.

受欢迎的同性恋交友应用Blued的创始人马保利称，此次轩然大波是中国的一次“历史性事件”。他说，新浪微博的回应显示，人们对同性恋者的态度正在逐渐改变。

“This is a nice outcome and a very valuable chance for the public to discuss homosexuality and to eliminate discrimination,” he said.

“这是一个很好的结果，也是一次公众讨论同性恋、消除歧视的非常宝贵的机会，”他说。

Weibo’s “cleanup” campaign highlighted the intense pressure that media companies in China face to purge sites of content that the authorities deem offensive. Experts said the government’s vague definition of improper content often results in companies’ going to extremes to show compliance.

新浪微博的“清理”活动，凸显了媒体公司在中国面临的巨大压力，它们被要求清除当局认为是冒犯的内容。专家表示，政府对不适当内容的定义模糊，常常导致公司为表示服从而走极端。

“The precise contours of what is ‘vulgar’ are always very blurry,” said Severine Arsene, managing editor of AsiaGlobal Online, a digital journal at the University of Hong Kong. “This campaign is following the same pattern of public space becoming more narrow and subject to conservative norms.”

“什么算‘粗俗’的准确划分总是很模糊的，”香港大学的电子期刊AsiaGlobal Online的执行主编塞维日尼·阿森尼(Severine Arsene)说。“这次运动按照同样的模式，让公共空间正在变得更狭窄、更受保守规范的限制。”