The Chinese government said on Friday it had ordered Internet search-engine Google to suspend some of the search functions in its Chinese website over concerns that links directed through the website contained lewd content.
Google China was ordered to suspend its overseas web pages searching services and associated words search services, China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center said.
Google Inc. which can hardly ignore the world’s largest population of internet users in China came up with a statement saying it was working to block pornography reaching users of its Chinese service. The main focus of the regulator’s attack is the Chinese version of Google, which is accessed by the world’s largest population of internet users at 298 million.
Google has long faced a difficult dilemma in China, reconciling the Chinese government’s insistence that Internet companies censor their products with the company’s desire to improve the world’s access to information; not to mention the demands of shareholders for profits.
The China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC), an Internet watchdog supported by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, earlier this week “strongly condemned” Google’s Chinese website for “violating national regulations”.
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