China cracks down on 'vulgar' Internet content

China's government has accused the country's leading Internet search engines and web portals, including Google, of threatening public morals by carrying pornographic and vulgar content. While Beijing regularly launches web censorship campaigns, the new crackdown is the first in which the government has targeted heavyweight companies such as Google and Baidu, the local rival that leads the Chinese search market. During the last campaign about a year ago, the authorities listed only small and little-known websites as responsible for spreading unhealthy content. The 19 Internet sites cited by the government on Monday included Sina, Sohu, Tencent and NetEase, among the country's biggest web portals and each run by overseas listed companies, and blog hosting websites and discussion forums such as Tianya. The move comes as the political leadership faces a raft of challenges, many of them organized through the Internet. Government censors are currently busy blocking reporting and debate about Charter 08, an appeal for democratic reform which has attracted signatures from hundreds of prominent intellectuals. Other forms of dissent, such as the voicing of demands for compensation in China's poisoned milk scandal, have also been organized through the Internet.