{"id":41045,"date":"2009-06-20T14:31:01","date_gmt":"2009-06-20T21:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=41045"},"modified":"2009-06-23T07:03:30","modified_gmt":"2009-06-23T14:03:30","slug":"regulators-target-google-for-pornographic-content-cctv-airs-fake-interview-netizens-react","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2009\/06\/regulators-target-google-for-pornographic-content-cctv-airs-fake-interview-netizens-react\/","title":{"rendered":"Regulators Target Google for Pornographic Content, CCTV Airs Fake Interview, Netizens React"},"content":{"rendered":"
As previously reported on CDT<\/a>, Chinese government regulators have ordered Google to suspend some of its search functions due to the pornographic content available through its search engine.\u00a0 More details from the New York Times<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n The Chinese government disabled some search functions on the Chinese-language Web site of Google<\/a> on Friday, saying the site was linking too often to pornographic and vulgar content.<\/p>\n Government officials met with managers of the Chinese operations of Google<\/a> on Thursday afternoon to warn them that the company would be punished if it did not remove the offending material from the Web site, according to a report on Friday by Xinhua<\/a>, the state news agency.<\/p>\n […]On Friday evening, the associative-word feature of the Web site appeared to have been disabled. That is the function that displays a drop-down menu of words related to a search word that is typed into the search engine. The previous evening, reporters on China Central Television<\/a>, the state television network, showed how typing in the Chinese word for son, erzi, could pull up associated terms that have lewd connotations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Additionally, the government has ordered Google to block links to foreign websites from search results on its China Google page.\u00a0 From the Dow Jones Newswires via Total Telecom<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Chinese regulators have ordered Google Inc. to suspend search services for foreign Web sites via its Chinese Web site, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday, a day after the company was warned over pornographic content available through its search engine.<\/p>\n It wasn’t immediately clear if the order applies to all foreign Web sites or just certain sites. Currently, foreign Web sites are still searchable and accessible from Google’s Chinese home page.<\/p>\n Google was also ordered to suspend searches for certain key words when summoned by unspecified regulators Thursday afternoon, the report said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On June 18, CCTV aired a report on Google’s pornographic content which has drawn swift criticism from Chinese netizens, particularly for a false interview with a supposed ‘college student’ named Gao Ye.\u00a0 (Watch the full CCTV segment, including the Gao Ye interview, on Sina.com<\/a>.)\u00a0 EastSouthNorthWest<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>translates a post by Xiao Tian at Oxn.in (Chinese)<\/a> summarizing netizen skepticism:<\/p>\n On the same day, netizens began to question quickly.\u00a0 Search engines frequently offer likely search terms because these are popular with other users.\u00a0 As such, the search engines are not responsible because they are only reporting what users are “voting” on with their searches.\u00a0 Thus, when Google.cn proposes certain relevant search terms, they are merely informing you what other netizens are most commonly searching for.\u00a0 They are reflecting the facts of life, and it shows that Google.cn is being fair and objective.\u00a0 Rather than blaming the search engines, we should be blaming people for wanting to look up pornography which proliferate on the Chinese Internet.<\/p>\n Similarly, other search engines such as Baidu and Bing contain the same kinds of pornographic information, but CCTV completely ignores them.\u00a0 Netizens made screen captures to show that Baidu is no less vulgar than Google.cn …<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Soon after this CCTV segment aired, the Southern Metropolis Daily (Chinese)<\/a> reported that the interviewed university student Gao Ye was in fact a CCTV intern.\u00a0 Netizens have launched the human flesh search engine.\u00a0 Again translated by EastSouthNorthWest<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Yesterday morning, a netizen discovered that there was a user named “Gao Ye” at the social networking site Xiaonei.\u00a0 Based upon the photos, this is the same Gao Ye who appeared the day before on <Focus Interview>.\u00a0 According to a conversation with a friend on June 17, Gao Ye is presently an intern with the CCTV program <Focus Interview>.\u00a0 Also, other netizens found Gao Ye and his friends’ Sina.com blogs which said that he was going to become an intern at CCTV.\u00a0 This information was later posted at Cat898 Forum, Tianya Form and other websites.\u00a0 The reporter confirmed with a worker at CCTV’s <Focus Interview> program group that Gao Ye is indeed an intern there.<\/p>\n The human flesh search quickly located and published Gao Ye’s school, QQ number, mobile phone number and other personal information.\u00a0 His Xiaonei page was flooded with scornful comments.\u00a0 Not satisfied with direct personal attacks, some netizens began a human flesh search on his girlfriend.\u00a0 Her blog, Xiaonei page, QQ number and other information were published.\u00a0 Her photos with Gao Ye were posted all over the place alongside personal attacks.<\/p>\n Faced with the pressure from the powerful human flesh search, Gao Ye and his girlfriend deleted their blogs.\u00a0 Gao Ye’s Xiaonei space now only has the message: “Account canceled by the user.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n ChinaSMACK has translations of netizen reactions<\/strong><\/a> to the CCTV report and also a translation of a sarcastic letter to the ‘university student’ Gao Ye<\/strong><\/a> from Hudong Baike (Chinese)<\/a>:<\/p>\n Schoolmate Gao Ye, hello: You probably do not know me, but I know you from Focus Interview. I attentively listened to you talk about the \u201cGoogle China using yellow pictures [pornography] and vulgar content to poison your schoolmate\u201d thing, and was deeply touched and learned a lot. Whether or not that schoolmate is really yourself is not important, but I hope to give you some sincere advice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
A Letter To Gao Ye<\/strong><\/h3>\n