China Lashes Out at Search Engines Over Porn

China is accusing Google, local rival Baidu, and other top search engines and Web portals of threatening public morals by linking to porn and other “vulgar” content, the Financial Times reports. Such Web censorship campaigns aren’t uncommon in China, but this is the first time it’s gone after such mighty players.

China has been busily quashing dissent online, including a major democratic reform petition and demands for compensation in the poisoned milk scandal. But yesterday’s complaint focused solely on smut and other content deemed inappropriate for children. The editor-in-chief at China’s leading news portal, which was among the 19 sites named, said he wasn’t bothered by such crackdowns. “Ensuring your content is OK is a content provider’s responsibility,” he said. (More China stories.)