(Yicai Global) Jan. 15 -- Chinese major social media platform Weibo has again been punished by regulators for its failure to crack down on pornographic content, according to a government notice today.

The National Office for the Fight Against Pornography and Illegal Publications has repeatedly summoned Weibo, which has more than 500 million active users, ordered it to rectify, and imposed administrative penalties on the firm for its failure to ensure the platform’s content security.

Users reported many smut marketing accounts and salacious texts and images appearing on the Twitter-like media, the National Office for the Fight Against Pornography and Illegal Publications announced on its WeChat account today. Its investigation found that many Weibo accounts led to pornographic platforms and this phenomenon has long gone unchecked, the agency said.

Chinese police cracked a number of cases of criminals using Weibo accounts to redirect to porn platforms last year, and Weibo was punished time and again for not fulfilling its main responsibility, the announcement said, but without revealing specific penalties.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi