A file photo that illustrates cloud computing. [Photo: ifeng.com]

Chinese authorities are targeting illegal online data storage, as part of their drive to clean up China's online environment.

A national campaign against pornography, bootlegged materials and illegal publications in China has led major online data storage providers to shut down or remove some of their services.

The move is part of the country's latest efforts to target illegal online contents, which began in March.

Huawei, a Chinese communication equipment provider, announced on Tuesday that it will turn off its online storage and sharing service DBank starting from July. The company said the change will not affect its HiCloud storage services.

Other major online storage providers, such as KuaiPan, an online storage provider owned by Nasdaq-listed content streaming and downloading company Xunlei, and Vdisk, a storage provider from major Chinese Internet portal Sina, have also announced terminations of their free personal storage services.

Meanwhile, companies including 115 and Tencent's Weiyun said they will stop offering some of their file-sharing functions.

Unlike international online storage providers Dropbox and Google Drive, Chinese online storage services are more connected among users and encourage sharing.

Because of this, the National Working Group against Pornography and Illegal Productions said earlier this year that the online storage service providers were allegedly major avenues for spreading pornographic and other illegal materials.

The campaign also noted six cases of illegal online storage sales that involved spreading pornographic contents. These included services from security software developer Qihoo 360 Technology, as well as Chinese entertainment portal LeEco.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, the number of personal web storage service users reached 450 million last year in China, up from 380 million in 2014. That is more than half of the total 688 million Internet users on the Chinese mainland.

During the first quarter of the year, China shut down more than 1,000 illegal websites for spreading pornographic contents and materials that violated intellectual property laws.

Huawei announces on its official website that it will turn off its storage and sharing service DBank starting from July. [Photo: ifeng.com]