Google China condemned for providing lewd links

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-18 22:22

BEIJING - The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center (CIIRC) Thursday "strongly condemned" the search engine Google's Chinese portal Thursday for providing what the agency said were links to pornography and "lewd" information that violated national regulations.

The CIIRC said in a statement that Google's Chinese portal was still providing links to many obscene pictures, videos and articles, despite warnings in January and April.

Google China "does not filter porn contents from its search results according to China's related laws and regulations." the CIIRC said, saying that it harms the body and mind of minors and go against public morality.

The CIIRC urged Google China to clean up pornography and "lewd" information and suggested related enforcement departments to impose punishments upon the company in accordance with the law.

The government launched a major crackdown on Internet porn since January targeting popular online portals and major search engines such as Google and Baidu.

So far, more than one thousand of Web sites have been blocked by the authorities for distributing porn and other lewd materials in texts and pictures.

Xinhua is working to contact Google for comments.