China urges Web site to filter all vulgar contents under threat of site shut-down

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Chinese media) -- China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center (CIIRC) on Monday praised two Web sites who promptly filtered lewd contents after warnings to remove questionable content and reproved one Web site that failed to weed out vulgar content in a timely manner.

The Beijing-based xilu.com has shut down its picture-posting section which contained vulgar content and the Shanghai-based blogbus.com has made a complete overhaul of its blog platform, according to a statement issued by the CIIRC.

Both Web sites have taken effective measures and deserve commendation, it said.

The Guangdong-based chinawap.cn, however, has not weeded out all of its lewd pictures, although it has shut down the album program. The CIIRC said more effective endeavors should be taken to eliminate all vulgar content.

The CIIRC exposed the three Web sites on Jan. 29 in its sixth blacklist of Web sites "containing a large amount of lewd content" and ordered the sites to immediately clean up their content.

The center warned that it would shut down the sites if they fail to weed out "vulgar content."

China has shut down up to 1,507 such Web sites since the anti-porn campaign was launched on Jan. 5. More than 70 Web sites, including major Internet portals such as Sina, MSN China and search engines Google, Baidu, have been given warnings to remove pornography, which is illegal in China.