RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: Ill-defined crackdown on websites  Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:27 pm | |
| China cracked down on major websites including Google and Baidu yesterday, warning against the portals' spread of pornography and vulgarity among the world's largest number of netizens.
In a major show of strength, seven government agencies jointly announced a campaign to weed out 'yellow' content and listed 19 of China's most popular websites for persistent display of adult images and disregard of censors' warnings.
It is the first known campaign after last March, when warnings were sent to video-hosting sites like Tudou, a Chinese YouTube clone.
'Some websites have exploited loopholes in laws and regulations,' said Mr Cai Mingzhao, a deputy chief of the State Council Information Office, who chaired the meeting.
'They have used all kinds of ways to distribute content that is low-class, crude and even vulgar, gravely damaging mores on the Internet.'
While none of the sites and its operators is known to have been shut down or fined yet, Mr Cai warned that they face 'severe punishments'.
On the state-run China Central Television's news bulletin of the announcement, officials were filmed carting away computer equipment from offices, but the identity of the company was not made known.
Online operators on the 'black list' released by the government were deemed to have not deleted adult content quickly enough.
Google, for example, was said to have links to porn sites from its image search and to have not taken 'effective measures' after warnings by the authorities.
But a senior manager of a leading website in China told The Straits Times yesterday on condition of anonymity that the instructions and warnings were vague.
'They said that some pictures are low-brow and crude. But what is considered 'low-brow', they didn't elaborate,' he said. 'We are just feeling our way in the dark now and going by intuition, deleting whatever we think might not be deemed proper by the government.'
The confusion is not surprising in a vast developing country where social mores differ across regions. While bikini-clad girls can be seen on the beaches of southern Hainan Island, it is a rare sight and frowned upon in public swimming pools in the capital Beijing, not to mention the rural villages.
The senior manager added that they have not been told what sort of punishments they would receive.
But he believes that the crackdown would be effective in cutting down undesirable content online, as the authorities would continue to monitor the websites.
China's 290 million netizens have had easy access to adult content despite strict censorship that filters out obvious porn sites. But netizens had been able to post nude pictures masquerading as 'body art'.
Even the government's English-language China Daily newspaper has photographs of scantily-clad women on its website.
A chubby woman nicknamed 'Sister Furong' won nationwide fame in 2005 for daring poses showing lots of skin. But the content has become more risque of late. Last month, a woman in Shanghai was detained after posting a video of herself having sex.
'There's been a lot of smut on Chinese websites, and surveys have shown that quite a number of Chinese parents are concerned about their children being exposed to pornography,' said Hong Kong-based analyst Rebecca MacKinnon, who specialises in China's Internet controls.
'The government is probably banking on a fair amount of support from the parents for this latest crackdown...but this happens around the world. Governments in many countries want to limit porn online.'
She added it remains to be seen if this latest move would also mean a tighter leash on political content online - an area which has always been policed more closely by the Chinese government.
LNK |
|
