BEIJING (AFP)--Chinese authorities have shut down 1,507
pornographic Web sites in an online cleanup that has included
ordering Internet giants like Google to sever links to vulgar
sites, state media said Wednesday.
The campaign was continuing despite week-long Lunar New Year
celebrations, China's biggest holiday, with authorities blocking
another 55 sites since Monday, Xinhua news agency said.
Previous state media reports have said at least 41 people had
been detained in the crackdown.
The Ministry of Public Security and six other government
agencies launched the drive on Jan. 5, targeting sites that post or
link to content that the government says "harms public morality"
and corrupts the nation's youth.
China's control-conscious Communist leaders, who keep a tight
lid on political content on the web, have previously cracked down
on pornography. But the current campaign appears one of the biggest
yet.
The government has warned that Internet giants such as Google,
MSN and Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine, could also
be shut down if they continue to link to vulgar content.
Google, Baidu and others have since issued apologies and said
they have taken steps against online porn.
Google, for example, has said it deleted all links to vulgar
material from its search indices and would go all-out to prevent
such material reappearing.
The 55 Web sites shut this week had posted "pornographic and
vulgar content, violating Chinese laws against public distribution
of sexual images," Xinhua said, quoting the Special Operation
Office for the Crackdown on Online Porn and Lewd Content.
The office this week closed 114 blogs containing porn and
deleted more than 47,000 pornographic pictures, Xinhua said.
It said the office pledged to continue the crackdown.
China's online population, already the world's largest, rose to
298 million by the end of 2008, nearly equal to the population of
the U.S., according to a Chinese industry survey released this
month.
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