China's Google Porn Crackdown

For the third time this year, the Chinese government has denounced Google (GOOG) for enabling users of its Chinese Web site to access pornographic Web sites. According to Reuters, the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center, a government-supported "watchdog" outfit, claimed yesterday that "Google China has not conducted the oversight required according to China's laws and regulations, and a large volume of foreign internet pornographic information has entered our borders through this website." And this morning, the government finally did something about it.

According to the New York Times, the Chinese regime has disabled the drop-down function in Google's search field, in which Google tries to guess what you're searching for based on the first few characters you type. Apparently, the word erzi doesn't just mean "son" but also one or two of the bluer concepts in the human imagination. (We're dying to know which, but the Times' own internal censors have decided to spare us.) In addition, the government apparently has plans to shut down access to foreign Web sites via Google China. In response, Google offered up yet another banal olive branch to the authorities: "We have been continually working to deal with pornographic content, and material that is harmful to children, on the Web in China."

Ars Technica reports that Google's not the only one to feel China's puritanical wrath; some 2,000 Web sites have been shut down so far this year. But of course, there's more going on here than sins of the flesh. Google and Baidu, China's domestic search engine, have been locked in an intense rivalry for dominance in the country's search market. And China's been more than a little jumpy over free information lately, what with last year's Olympic Tibet demonstrations and the recent anniversary of Tiananmen Square. The government has been trying to force all computer manufacturers to install Internet censorship software into new PCs, for example.

Still, there's no denying that porn has been something of a headache for Google lately. Take the events of May 20, or "Porn Day," on YouTube. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., countless users of the Web site 4chan (the same geniuses that gave the world "rickrolling") uploaded God knows how many pornographic videos onto the video site. Often headlined with such pleasant titles as "Jonas Brothers," the videos started with 30 seconds of innocuous content, then cut right to the heavin' 'n hoin'. YouTube managers scrambled to purge the system of the porn, but as long as they were in the mood, they could've cleaned out all the legit Jonas Brothers tripe as well.

And as long as we're on the subject of Google's foreign relations, we'll close with a happy note. Thanks to the remarkable events in Iran, Google has expanded its translation site to include Farsi among the languages users can now turn into English. All those tweets coming out of Tehran are at your disposal at the drop of a hat, and Google should be commended for being such a mensch so fast.