Porn Fears Lead to Suspension of Chinese Weather Center's Weibo

The National Meteorological Center's Weibo account was suspended after issuing a yellow rainstorm alert, reports Global Times.

The color yellow has a few different meanings for Chinese netizens, and it was a rather raunchy interpretation that landed the weather center in hot water with Weibo.

'Yellow,' in the context of meteorological alerts, simply refers to a weather condition's severity. To the internet community, however, 'yellow' is a well-known code word for pornography. 

When The National Meteorological Center released its yellow rainstorm alert on Weibo last Sunday, complaints from concerned netizens called Weibo's system into action. What was intended as a helpful weather update thereby led to the full suspension of the Meteorological Center's account.

The National Meteorological Center assured the public that it was a bug in the Weibo system, not any reference to porn, which caused their sudden disappearance from the social media site. 

As the center rebuilds its page, netizens encouraged it to create a new color system for weather alerts.

This time, no yellow. 

[Cover image via Pexels]