China Tightens Grip

China recently came down hard once again on some major websites for listing offensive items. Whilst the items in general were in fact pornography and other related items, it does go to show that China is being anything but passive with regards to the content made available to its citizens.

Several of the Chinese Government's most powerful agencies mapped out a campaign aimed at targeting forbidden content, and went as far as to name more than a dozen of China's most popular websites which have disregarded censor warnings.

This new campaign follows in the footsteps of a similar initiative in March last year when numerous p2p media sites were warned to filter and subdue certain content.

A deputy chief of China’s State Council Information Office reportedly claimed that sites including Baidu and Google are exploiting legal loopholes and could face severe punishments for doing so. Authorities claim that Google for instance allowed links to prohibited content and failed to adopt any serious measures to curb abuse.

On the other hand, leading website owners have expressed their concerns over how difficult it is to adopt measures which are suitable for all China. It is well known that what is frowned upon in some regions of China is considered normal and acceptable in other regions.

The site owners claim that Chinese guidelines to filtering content are vague and too open to interpretation, this makes it even harder for sites to differentiate from licit and illicit content. The latest developments dispel the odd opinion that China’s grip over content is due to become more lax in the near futue.