China takes Google, Web firms to task

HONG KONG - The Chinese government broadened its recent effort to limit pornography on the Internet by criticizing 19 Internet companies yesterday, including the two market leaders in China, Google and Baidu.

A statement posted on a government-run news site said that the Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies would work together "to purify the Internet's cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors." A similar statement had been issued on Dec. 5, but attracted little attention.

Yesterday's statement went a step further in saying that 19 companies had failed to do enough to stop the spread of pornography. The names of the companies were also posted on the same official website, along with a terse statement of why each company was on the list.

The entry for Google simply said: "Searching for images results in an enormous number of vulgar, pornographic sites. Google, receiving notice, did not undertake any effective measures."

A Google spokeswoman, Jin Cui, said the company had no immediate reaction to this criticism and was not aware of any new regulations or restrictions on the Internet in China.

The government list of offending Internet companies had a similarly phrased criticism of Baidu, the market leader among Internet search engines in China. A spokeswoman answering the phones at Baidu's press office said that only one of her colleagues was authorized to discuss the issue but was not available.

The companies chastised yesterday appeared to be those particularly active in offering search engines or hosting blogs and chat forums.