China clamps down on Internet sex search

This article came from Variety Asia Online:

Tuesday, 06 January 2009

China has launched a crackdown against high-profile websites including Google that officials accuse of threatening public morals by spreading pornography and vulgarity.

The crackdown was announced the same day as newspapers and websites were plastered with paparazzi photos of Zhang Ziyi in topless and intimate embrace with her boyfriend Vivi Nevo. Snaps were apparently taken as the pair were holidaying in the Caribbean.

Warning is the latest effort to rein in the Internet in China in what’s not expected to be a great year for online freedom in the country.

The Communist Party is attempting to stifle dissent and protests as the economy slows and as China enters a year of major anniversaries, including the 20th year since the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989 and the 60th since the revolution that brought the party to power.

The crackdown follows a public outcry after a Shanghai shop assistant was detained by police for posting an online video of herself having sex.

The campaign was launched by China's powerful Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies Monday. The report on state TV showed officials taking away digital equipment from some unspecified site.

Apart from Google, a state-sponsored industry org called China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center listed China’s main search engine Baidu, as well as Sina.com and Sohu.com as among those that have "spread pornography and threaten youth's morals."

The org threatened to tighten regulations on these groups after the discovery of 19 websites providing pictures, text, video clips and Web links "inappropriate for young people."

"The list exposes a number of websites that violate public morality and harm the physical and mental health of young people," it said.

Altogether, 19 Internet operators and websites named had failed to swiftly cut "vulgar" content and had not heeded warnings from censors, the org claimed.