China filters Google in war on 'uncivilised behaviour'

China’s government is blocking some Google Inc search links to stop the spread of pornography amid a government crackdown on the “vulgar trend” of “uncivilised behaviour” on the internet.

The office that handles a crackdown on internet pornography asked Google to remove the links to the disputed content, China’s official Xinhua news agency said on its website on Friday. English-language search results weren’t affected, the agency said.

China’s moves to block search engines from showing links to pornography comes after business groups, including the business software alliance (BSA), called on the government to review a requirement to ship anti-porn software with all computers. Green Dam-Youth Escort, which monitors Web site access, should be included with computers starting July 1, according to a May 19 government directive.

Google has met with government representatives to discuss pornography concerns, said Scott Rubin, a spokesman for the Mountain View, California-based company. Google, the world’s most popular internet search engine, is also examining the way its website operates. The company works continually in China to stem pornography and material harmful to children, Rubin said.

Computers loaded with Green Dam block sites with pornographic images, text as well as references to the Falun Gong spiritual organisation, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. A June 17 update to the software failed to fix a vulnerability that could allow Web sites to take control of a computer, the researchers said.

‘Uncivilised behaviour’
An “army of tens of thousands of volunteers” will be recruited by the year-end to help remove lewd content from the Internet, Xinhua reported on Friday, citing the Capital Civic Enhancement Committee Office. Volunteers would be registered with authorities and be asked to report Internet users showing “uncivilised behaviour,” Xinhua said.

“It seems like they’re looking for justifications for Green Dam by showing all the nasty stuff that’s out there on the Internet that they have to control,” said Rebecca McKinnon, an assistant professor of journalism and media studies at the University of Hong Kong. “It’s odd that they’re singling out Google so specifically.”

There should be “no slackening of efforts to punish the ‘vulgar trend’ in the cyberworld,” Xinhua said on Saturday, citing comments from Li Changchun, a senior Chinese leader and member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Political Bureau. The construction of “green” website-surfing venues should be stepped up to offer minors a healthy social and cultural environment. Service review
“We are undertaking a thorough review of our service and taking all necessary steps to fix any problems with our results,” Google’s Rubin said in an e-mail. “This has been a substantial engineering effort, and we believe we have addressed the large majority of the problem results,” he wrote.

The non-government China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre, on June 18 accused Google of failing to meet regulations requiring adequate filtering of obscene content, resulting in the spread of pornography from offshore.

Google rose $6.03 to $420.09 at 4 pm New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading on Friday. The shares have climbed 37 per cent this year.