China targets Google over crackdown on Pornography

BEIJING: China launched a major crackdown on Internet pornography on Monday targeting popular online portals and major search engines such as GOOGLe.

Seven government agencies will work together on the campaign to "purify the Internet's cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors," according to an announcement on the government's official Chinese-language website. Pornography is banned in China, though the government's Internet police struggle to block websites based abroad. The government announcement said Google and Baidu, China's two most heavily used search engines, had failed to take "efficient" measures after receiving notices from the country's Internet watchdog that they were providing links to pornographic material. The statement also named popular web portals as well as a number of video sharing sites and online bulletin boards, that it said contain problematic photos, blogs and postings. It said violators will be severely punished, but did not give details or say how long the campaign will last. A Google spokeswoman in China, Cui Jin, defended the site's operations, saying it does not contain any pornographic content. "If we find any violation, we will take action. So far, I haven't seen any examples of violations," Cui said. China has the world's largest population of Internet users with more than 250 million. The central government has blocked access to many websites it considers subversive or too political, including The New York Times' website on December 19. It was unblocked a couple days later and remained open Monday. Beijing loosened some media and Internet controls during the 2008 Summer Olympics - gestures that were meant to show the international community that the games had brought greater freedom to the Chinese people. During the August games, China allowed access to long-barred websites such as those of the British Broadcasting Corporation and Human Rights Watch. Those websites remained open on Monday. In the past the Foreign Ministry has defended China's right to censor websites that have material deemed illegal by the government, saying that other countries regulate Internet usage, too.