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China names more Web sites for vulgar content
2009-01-09
BEIJING - China has expanded its campaign against pornography and vulgar content online, naming more than a dozen Web sites, including Microsoft's MSN, that it says need to clean up. The Web sites contained a large amount of vulgar material that "violated society's morals, and harmed the health of young people," said a notice posted late Thursday on China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center's Web site. The government-backed body that monitors the Internet urged the sites to eliminate offensive content and Internet users to monitor the process. On Monday, seven government agencies launched a one-month campaign to clean up China's Internet content. The same day, the center criticized 19 Web sites, including Google and China's most popular search engine Baidu, for allegedly carrying vulgar or pornographic content. Many of the Web sites issued apologies and vowed to clean up, setting up hot lines for complaints. The Chinese government blocks access to many Web sites it considers subversive or too political, and Internet companies regularly self-censor to keep from running afoul of the authorities who often launch clean up campaigns. The center said MSN China's movie channel and bulletin board contained a large amount of vulgar images. Microsoft China could not be immediately reached for comment. Also included in the list is Tom Online's Internet portal. The company has a venture with Internet-based phone provider Skype for the Chinese market. The center said Thursday that Google has begun cleaning up its content but needs to continue. It said Baidu has completed a cleanup but it has been ineffective and much vulgar content still exists. Officials at Google Inc. were not immediately available for comment. A notice on its Web site Tuesday said it had started checking for links that contained vulgar content. At Baidu's public relations office, a woman surnamed Zhang said she had not seen the report yet. She referred questions to Baidu's overseas department, where the phone rang unanswered. TOM Online said in a statement on its Web site Thursday that it was "deeply regretful" and posted a number and e-mail address for complaints. "Regarding this vulgar content, TOM staff have already responded instantly, proactively and thoroughly," it said. China has the world's largest population of Internet users with more than 250 million.
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