Google 'used' in online porn tiff

The recent fuss over search engine Google may be being used as justification to introduce the controversial anti-pornography filter Green Dam, a researcher and Chinese netizens say.

The government halted key features of the world's most popular search engine after claiming Google China's services, such as Google Suggest and Google Translate, helped Web users get easier access to pornography.

"It seems like they're looking for justification for Green Dam by showing all the nasty stuff that's out there on the Internet that they have to control," said Rebecca McKinnon, an assistant professor of journalism and media studies at the University of Hong Kong.

"It's odd that they're singling out Google so specifically," she told Bloomberg News.

Punishment for Google included suspending some of Google China's overseas Web page search services and associated words search services.

English-language search results were not affected. Access to foreign language searches on Google's Chinese portal seemed to operate normally yesterday.

But Huang Chengqing, deputy secretary-general of the Internet Society of China, said the government was not "picking on Google to get revenge for attacks" from foreign groups on Green Dam.

"The Google incident involves a single company, while the other is a long-debated issue. They are not necessarily related," Huang told China Daily yesterday, adding Google has not done enough to keep its extensive search techniques from finding excessive porn content.

Qu Xiaodong, an analyst with domestic consulting firm CCW Research, said Google China seems to be facing its worst crisis since entering China in 2005. The company was reported twice this year to the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center (CIIIRC).

"The reputation of the 'perfect Google' is now marred and it may be irreversible," Qu added.

A group of 19 US business associations, including Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing large software makers, and the American Chamber of Commerce in China, last Tuesday sent a letter to the Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong. They suggested China reviews its requirement that State-backed anti-pornography software Green Dam-Youth Escort be shipped with all personal computers sold in the country from July 1 following security and privacy concerns.