'Clothing store' sex video probed by Beijing police

Police have investigated a sex video suspected to have been made inside a fitting room at a clothing store in Beijing's Sanlitun district and widely circulated on social media.

Beijing police said in a statement on Wednesday that officers had received several reports from Internet users over the online circulation of the indecent video.

A man in a dress and a naked woman are featured in a fitting room. The video went viral on social media late on Tuesday. People who uploaded it claimed it had been shot at the Uniqlo store in Sanlitun.

Many suspected the video was a publicity stunt. It was quickly deleted by social media operators.

Uniqlo, the Japanese clothing company, released a statement on Wednesday denying that the incident was a publicity stunt.

Officials from Sina and Tencent, which run Weibo and WeChat, were interviewed by the Cyberspace Administration of China on Wednesday afternoon and told to strengthen management of the popular social media platforms. The administration will continue to crack down on lewd content on the Internet.

Zhu Xiaoding, who handles criminal law at the Beijing Cailiang law firm, said those who uploaded the video online could face charges of spreading pornography.

"The people who shot the video could escape punishment, as the intimacy occurred in a private space inside the clothing store. They can only be condemned for their social morals," he said.

"However, it is a different matter when you upload the video to social media. Whether it was uploaded by those who shot it or not, it could be deemed as spreading pornographic content."

Under China's Criminal Law, those spreading pornographic content are liable to a maximum punishment of two years in prison.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn