The government has warned that Internet giants such as Google, MSN and Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine, could also be shut down if they continue to link to vulgar content. -- PHOTO: APBEIJING - CHINESE authorities have shut down 1,507 pornographic websites in an online clean-up that has included ordering Internet giants like Google to sever links to vulgar sites, state media said on Wednesday.
The campaign was continuing despite week-long Lunar New Year celebrations, China's biggest holiday, with authorities blocking another 55 sites since Monday, Xinhua news agency said.
Previous state media reports have said at least 41 people had been detained in the crackdown.
The Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies launched the drive on Jan 5, targeting sites that post or link to content that the government says 'harms public morality' and corrupts the nation's youth.
China's control-conscious Communist leaders, who keep a tight lid on political content on the web, have previously cracked down on pornography. But the current campaign appears one of the biggest yet.
The government has warned that Internet giants such as Google, MSN and Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine, could also be shut down if they continue to link to vulgar content.
Google, Baidu and others have since issued apologies and said they have taken steps against online porn.
Google, for example, has said it deleted all links to vulgar material from its search indices and would go all-out to prevent such material reappearing.
The 55 websites shut this week had posted 'pornographic and vulgar content, violating Chinese laws against public distribution of sexual images,' Xinhua said, quoting the Special Operation Office for the Crackdown on Online Porn and Lewd Content.
The office this week closed 114 blogs containing porn and deleted more than 47,000 pornographic pictures, Xinhua said.
It said the office pledged to continue the crackdown.
China's online population, already the world's largest, rose to 298 million by the end of 2008, nearly equal to the population of the United States, according to a Chinese industry survey released this month. -- AFP
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