The website, Black Hawk Safety Net, has been said to provide cyber criminals with lessons in hacking and also be involved in selling malware. Officials of the Hubei government refused to comment on the matter and the Chinese provincial public security bureau failed to reply to requests for comments

Although the website has been shut down it is a reported that a back-up website has been set up and posts on other forums have detailed the intentions of the sites 180 000 subscribers.

The closure of the website could see members backlash against other internet users, the notice addressed to members said; "At this time, there are Internet users with evil intentions who have deliberately destroyed Black Hawk's reputation, deceived our members and stole material. We must join forces and attack these websites.”

China’s internet censorship values came under scrutiny, last month, asGoogle threatened to stop serving the country. The Chinese government denied the accusation that hackers based in China targeted Google.