Clamping Down on Filthy Websites

China has launched a new campaign targeting the purveyors of risque websites.

From Bloomberg.com:

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s biggest Internet market by users, announced a nationwide crackdown on Web sites that it says spread pornography, singling out search engines including Google and Baidu for criticism.

China’s Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies jointly opened a one-month campaign at a meeting today in Beijing. The central government announced the decision through an official Xinhua News Agency report posted on its Web site.

A vulgar tone on the Internet has seriously damaged the physical and mental health of youth, Cai Ming-zhao, deputy press chief of the State Council, said at the meeting. Participants asked all related government agencies to “strictly execute the law,” Xinhua said.

Web sites that refuse to change after receiving warnings risk penalties and closure, Xinhua said.

Baidu and Google, China’s biggest search engines, provide links to “a huge quantity of pornographic sites,” according to a statement from the China Internet Illegal Information Center today. Sina Corp., the biggest Chinese Web portal, was accused of hosting “tawdry” blog and photo sites, according to the center, which is linked to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

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Trying to rid the internet of porn seems to be a task equivalent of ridding noodles from China. Can't see how this would actually work to well. The Chinese do have the Great Firewall of China though, so I suppose it could be possible.

It's interesting they're targeting Google with this directive. I wonder if this is a precursor to them shutting the site down. It could be a convenient excuse to block the world's biggest search engine from the world's biggest internet population.