China: Antismut campaign sweeps internet. But any untold purpose? · Global Voices
Bob Chen

An internet cleansing movement, or antismut campaign launched by the Chinese authority, is sweeping across the internet in recent days. Well-known online service providers such as Google, Baidu, Tianya(where flesh search engine prospers), MSN China are on the list of crackdown, because they are thought to publish “vulgar, low and obscene content.”
China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center (中国互联网违法和不良信息举报中心), under the Internet Society of China, a nominally non-government group released a list of “immoral” websites on 5 Jan, claiming its source as public reports and complaints.
As Danwei accounted:
Each website listed is annotated with either a remark that the website had been given a notice, but didn't take effective action to clean up its content, or that it did not quickly delete newly added vulgar and low content.
On the list, Google is said to have linked to “obscene and pornographic websites”, while Baidu, the most prominent Chinese search engine, is stated to contain “large numbers of low and vulgar photographs”. Meanwhile, Sina, Sohu, Tencent and many more portal websites with a large population of users, didn't escape the harsh prosecution.
Tip: Search obscene keywords, if you know what they are, in Google, and you can get obscene stuff in return. Visit sections like “pretty girls,” “Women and men” in many portal websites, you've also chances to run into these obscene stuff. But undeniable, much content are uploaded by users rather than the website itself.
One day later, on 6, Jan, the administration took measure. Seven departments of the State Council deployed an overwhelming campaign trying to cleanse the internet. The head of the Press Office, Cai Ming-zhang, emphasized on an iron-fist crackdown:
国务院新闻办副主任蔡名照在会议上强调，对屡教不改、影响恶劣的网站，要曝光一批、处罚一批、关闭一批，绝不姑息迁就。
And he went on the censure:
一些网站钻政策法规空子，发布格调低下、内容粗俗甚至低级下流信息，严重败坏网上风气。网上低俗之风泛滥，严重危害广大青少年身心健康，殃及千家万户，祸及子孙后代。
And the war against “vulgar” digs in 9 Jan:
全国整治互联网低俗之风第二批曝光网站名单
This time, some relatively less influential websites, including MSN China, were put on the list.
The campaign has already claimed victims. Some high-ranked officials in Netease were dismissed, possibly because of putting Zhang Ziyi's Bikini pictures on headline.
Later, all the websites being criticized have posted apology letters. QQ has even shut down its chat room service, and the questioned sections in many websites are now inaccessible.
Now, the internet enterprises had stooped down, giving in to the crackdown. How netizens, who actually uploaded most of the vulgar content, would respond?
On Netease, the opinions mostly favor the crackdown. The leading comment on the new piece writes:
坚决支持国家的决定！
网络本身应当成为传播信息、增进交流、休闲娱乐的空间，
可现在多少网页，一打开就充斥着各类色情、暴力的信息，
google,作为众人向往的世界知名企业，你担负起自己的企业社会责任了吗？
百度，作为寄予厚望的知名民族企业，你对得起祖国人民对你的重托了吗？
支持[1584] 反对[968]
On the entire comment page, the voice of support takes the upper hand. However, it is not unreasonable to speculate that because Netease has been warned, it actually censured the comments, as it has done, to cater to the authority.
It is not sensible to deny that the websites concerned are influential. Then, what organization on earth is the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center, which is so boldly, that it dares to challenge all these internet giants?
The agency has its boss as China internet society (CIS) 中国互联网协会, which not long ago set 4 Sep as the Netizen Festival of China.
Though self-proclaiming to be Non-profit social group, CIS is widely accepted as an official agency, because it has members like Xinhua News, departments of State Council and quite a few telecom service companies (all state-control).
It is ironic that in fact Sohu, Netease, Sina and many other cleansed websites are actually the members of the Society. The fact more or less testifies to the core of it as official because these websites are not likely to target themselves and push the authority for regulation. The most reasonable explanation would be, the one that really speaks is none of them, but the authority.
Blogger Wei Wuhui in It Talks commented that the campaign is operated wisely.
最关键是，低俗这两个字不好定义，既然不好定义，就没有法律依据。这叫“太实”，容易造成三个不好的后果：打击面太大形成误伤、给一些具体经办人员以权谋私的空间、以及留下政府高压的不好形象。
这次政府的行为，其实，是相当聪明的。
布有低俗之风的网站名单的，是中国互联网协会，这严格意义上并非政府部门。也就是说，这是收到广大群众举报的。
这样的行为，容易得到舆论支持。
在各大网站出面道歉后，由七部委政府部门出面制定低俗标准，共一十三项。这不是法律标准，
是一项文化运动，和法律无关。政府自始自终，并未见到出手去惩治什么网站，都是企业为了塑造良好的互联网文化的自发行为。
However, not every person stands with the authority.
政治迷 in Tianya ridiculed the operation :
有人可以包几十个女人，公费吃喝，公费出国，公费赌博，公费住五星级。非常高雅。
有人自费看些网页却不行！因为太低俗。
Tit-for-tat, a list made up by netizens also shows up on the internet, pointing against CCTV, the state-control TV station.
全国网民公布第一批低俗电视频道名单：
And all the ten channel belong to CCTV are on the list.
第一名：CCAV1 一贯正确，首长领导
第二名：CCAV2 金融风暴，中国骄傲
第三名：CCAV3 港台歌曲，大行其道
第四名：CCAV4 内外新闻，形式大好
第五名：CCAV5 体育频道，外国专号
第六名：CCAV6 劣质影片，辫子军号
第七名：CCAV7 少儿军事，暴力洗脑
第八名：CCAV8 低俗剧目，又哭又闹
第九名：CCAV9 外语新闻，胡说八道
第十名：CCAV10 虚假科学，胡编乱造
移山愚公 told why Tianya, a popular online Bulletin Board System, is clouded by the so-called vulgar stuff.
不过这也不能怪天涯！关心时政的帖子不让发，天涯靠什么吸引人气? 那就只能靠低俗的帖子了。 靠那些溜须拍马的5毛帖的话，天涯早关门大吉了！！
Is this a pure campaign against immoral and polluting content? Still, many don't believe it to be so simple.
The 13 official items that define what vulgar is, contain these itmes to forbid:
表现或隐晦表现性行为、具有挑逗性或者侮辱性的内容；传播一夜情、换妻、性虐待等的有害信息；非法性药品广告和性病治疗广告等相关内容；
Apparently, it doesn't concern any bit of political content, or openly forbids anything related to “subversion”, an item usually used to prosecute against political activists. But netizens still nose out a touch of implicit intention, because even though the authority deleted the unfavored posts regardless of whether it really has vulgar stuff, nobody can complain.
李国豪， a netizen in Tianya thought:
绝大多数网友是支持天涯的，不过当官的会支持政府整顿天涯，天涯让当官的太不舒服了。全国网站都整顿顺溜了，你们就可以不用再顾及屁民们在网上的批评了，就可以高高兴兴的吃喝嫖赌了。光明正大搞腐败才是正道。这才是这次政府整顿网站的真正目的。
GFW(GREAT FIREWALL) blog predicts that 2009 would be an uneasy year for internet and media.
醉翁之意不在酒。有点新闻敏感性的人应该知道，0808年末，包括多名著名学者在内的上百位知识分子起草发布了《零八XIANZHANG》。看来，蚍蜉已经为撼树行动起来了。回顾下厦门的PX事件、山西奴工、上海反对磁悬浮列车事件、瓮安事件、杨佳案、多地出租车司机罢运、三聚氰胺、代课老师上访等等诸如此类事件，哪一件事件的背后没有网络这个助推器？
所以，接下来一定会在新闻控制上加大力度。已经被点名的网站大佬们，不要以为删删图片就完事了。09年的传媒领域一定会腥风血雨。
Now, Bullog.cn, a well-known blog service provider site famous for its bold critiques of the authority, has been shut down. Is this antismut campaign foreshadowing a more severe online cleansing?