Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Navigation
Primary Navigation
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular
Secondary Navigation
Search
Search:
Chinese Internet portals argue porn crackdown easier said than done
AFP - Wednesday, January 7
SHANGHAI (AFP) - - Leading Chinese Internet portals said Tuesday they would do what they could to stamp out pornography in line with a new government crackdown, but said it would be hard to carry out in practice.
The nature of the Internet makes it difficult to stop obscene material from showing up in their search engine results, they said, a day after officials threatened to close down sites that failed to wipe out online vice.
"We cannot block this material automatically," said Li Mei, an official at the popular Internet portal Sohu.
"It's actually quite difficult to immediately spot and delete anything that is vulgar or pornographic when netizens post them, but we will definitely step up our efforts," she told AFP.
The government identified 19 Internet companies on Monday, including Sohu and search engine giants Google and Baidu, that it accused of spreading pornography and other material that could corrupt young people.
China's Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies announced a crackdown on companies that ignore government warnings and threatened to close down sites that did not comply.
"We will follow government instructions and abide by government regulations," said Li Jia, an investor relations manager for NetEase, another portal targeted in the crackdown.
"As to the accusation of not deleting photos swiftly, we've informed our IT department to step up its supervision of this aspect," she said.
The government named Google as having failed to take action on government complaints that its search engine results contained a "massive number of links to pornographic web sites."
"Google has clear policies to protect freedom of expression while not allowing illegal content on our sites in China and elsewhere around the world," a spokesman for the US firm said in response to an AFP inquiry.
"As a search engine, Google does not control the content of the billions of pages in our index."
However, NetEase's Li agreed with the government saying major websites did have "supervisory responsibility" for such outside content.
"We should work more at this aspect," she said.
China has the world's largest online population at more that 250 million people, according to official figures, and is growing rapidly as computer use rises along with income levels.
Email Story
IM Story
Printable View
Blog This
Recommend this article
Average (0 votes)
Sign in to recommend this article »
Most Recommended Stories »
Related Articles: Internet Portals & Search Engines
Chinese Internet portals argue porn crackdown easier said than doneAFP - Wednesday, January 7
Twitter accounts of Obama, Britney Spears hackedAFP - Tuesday, January 6
Financial woes humble New York TimesAFP - Tuesday, January 6
Cash-strapped New York Times opens front page to adsAFP - Tuesday, January 6
Related Articles: Technology
Apple to sell all iTunes music without anti-piracy softwareAFP - 1 hour 21 minutes ago
Chinese Internet portals argue porn crackdown easier said than doneAFP - Wednesday, January 7
Logitech to cut 15 percent of workforce as outlook darkensAFP - Wednesday, January 7
Japan's video game market shrank last year: reportAFP - Wednesday, January 7
Twitter accounts of Obama, Britney Spears hackedAFP - Tuesday, January 6
Enlarge Photo
Chinese youths play online games at a Internet cafe in Beijing in 2007. Leading Chinese Internet portals said Tuesday they would do what they could to stamp out pornography in line with a new government crackdown, but said it would be hard to carry out in practice.
Related Photos
Slideshow Full Photo Coverage: Internet Portals & Search Engines
Related Full Coverage
Internet Portals & Search Engines
Latest development in the online world
All Full Coverage
Most Popular – Technology
Viewed
Steve Jobs has "hormone imbalance," to stay on as Apple CEO
Jett Travolta died of 'seizure': Bahamas officials
Pink iguanas discovered on Galapagos Islands
Milky Way spins faster, has more mass than thought: astronomers
Deadly Israeli raids on schools take Gaza toll to 660
View Complete List »
Search:
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular