China on Thursday expressed anger at Google for providing links on its English language search site that lead to vulgar content that violated the country’s law.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang dodged a question about whether the government had played a role in recent disruptions to Google sites within China. He did make it clear that the government was angry with Google.
Qin Gang
“According to complaints from many residents, Google’s English language search engine has spread large amounts of vulgar content that is lascivious and pornographic, seriously violating China’s relevant laws and regulations,” he told a regularly scheduled news conference.
Qin said a number of actions were taken against Google that were in line with the law, but did not reveal what specific actions were taken or comment on disruptions to Google services in China.
“I want to stress that Google China is a company operating within China to provide Internet search services, and it should strictly abide by Chinese laws and regulations.”
Chinese authorities have said their Internet restrictions are done to protect children from disturbing online images, but an official newspaper reported on Thursday about a plan to recruit volunteers to search the Internet for banned content also has a political angle.
The Legal Daily reported that Beijing was seeking 10,000 volunteers to also search for content that contained “threats to state security,” “subverting state power,” and “spreading rumors and disturbing social order.”
