Want to Make a Quick $120,000? Snitch on Porn Producers in China

Want to make a quick $120 grand? All  you have to do—assuming you’re in China—is snitch on a porn producer. According to a report by VICE News, the Chinese government on December 1 upped its reward money for “porn bounty hunters,” that is, people who inform on creators of adult content, to the new sum of 600,000 yuan, which converts to about $120,000 in United States cash. China, which completely outlaws porn, had previously offered a “bounty” of about $86,000 for turning in publishers and producers of any form of porn, according to Tech in Asia. The reward applies to porn either online or in analog form.  The reward indicates that the Chinese government is serious about stamping out porn, considering that the average annual wage of a Chinese worker is less than $11,000. In other words, a Chinese citizen could theoretically earn almost 12 times the money he or she makes in a year, just by ratting out a porn producer—clearly a powerful incentive to turn snitch. In fact, Vice found in a scan of Chinese social media that the government may be providing a bit too powerful of an incentive. “I’m not going to work today. I’ll look everywhere for materials so I can report anyone who I find disagreeable,” wrote one social media user. “There’s money to be made in reporting, so what am I doing working myself to death?” It seems doubtful that the Chinese government wants workers to blow off their jobs in order to stay home and search for porn. But the government there is not only focused on what may count as “porn” in the U.S. and other western countries, but on any material with sexual or erotic content. As The Guardian reported, China recently sentenced a woman identified only as “Liu,” who is the author of the gay-themed erotic novel Gongzhan, or Occupy,  to a prison term of more than 10 years. Even sharing raunchy GIFs on social media platforms can lead to prison terms in China, according to the China news site Sixth Tone,  which reported that one social media user was incarcerated for six months for sharing images presumably banned by the Chinese government. Photo by Kremlin.ru / Wikimedia Commons