In June 2009, a Chinese government-backed Internet watchdog coordinated an open campagin that aims at admonishing Google Inc. for allowing access to pornography through its Chinese Web site.

The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center said in a statement that pornographic images could be found through the Google China Web site, despite repeated warnings from the Center in January and April.

The brief statement accused Google's Chinese site, google.cn, of 'disseminating large amounts of pornographic and vulgar materials,' but provided no specific examples. It urged the company to remove objectionable materials, and recommended that 'the PRC government authorities' penalize Google China.

A Google spokesman stated that the company has been 'continually working to deal with pornographic content -- and material that is harmful to children -- on the Web in China.' He added, 'After seeing the government's announcement this morning, Google has renewed this effort.'

06/26/2009