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China has shut down 91 lewd websites in 3 days

by danesller0127 | January 12, 2009 at 09:15 am

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China has shut down 91 websites for pornographic and other "vulgar" content, as well as a political blog portal, since announcing its latest bid to ensure Internet morality, state media said on Monday.

China's ruling Communist Party is wary of threats to its grip on information and has conducted numerous censorship efforts targeting pornography, political criticism and Web scams, but officials flagged tougher steps this time.

"Ninety-one websites that included pornography and vulgar content had been closed down from January 8 to 10," the state-run Web portal China (www.china.com.cn) said.

Authorities have vowed to beef up crackdown efforts in the following days and urged law-breakers to voluntarily turn themselves in to local public security departments.

The sites closed on Saturday such as www.789b.com and www.678tp.cn have become inaccessible by Sunday.

They violated the top legislature's regulations and other laws regarding public distribution of sexual images, said a statement issued by the Special Operation Office for Crackdown on online Porn and Lewd Content.

The month-long campaign to purify the Internet was launched last Monday by the State Council's Information Office, Public Security and Culture ministries as well as four other government agencies.

Public distribution of pornography is illegal in China. Last Friday, the office announced the shut-down of 41 such illegal websites.

China's latest crackdown on Internet content targeted many big names, including Google, Microsoft's MSN and homegrown market-leading rival Baidu, for undermining public morality.

None of the big names was on the list of 91.

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Uwe Paschen

at 09:20 on January 12th, 2009

They may even shut down more web sites soon. The Olympics are over and the World is already dealing with a great many crisis that it will leave China alone.

danesller0127

at 10:12 on January 13th, 2009

Indeed! China is the fast-growing population of Internet users has risen to 298 million after passing to United States last year to become the world's largest...

The latest figure is 41.9 percent increase over the same period last year, the China Internet Network Information, report.China's Internet penetration is still low at just 22.6 percent, leaving more room for rapid growth, according to CNNIC. The Pew Internet and American Life Project places U.S. online penetration at 71 percent.

China's Internet use is growing at explosive rates despite government efforts to block access to material deemed subversive or pornographic. Regulators are in the middle of a crackdown on sites accused of carrying sexually explicit material.

The financial size of China's online market still trails that of the United States, South Korea and other countries. Thanks very much! Pachen' for the visit.... :D