Chinese officials launched a crackdown today on “vulgar” websites, including Google and the country’s leading search engine, Baidu, according to The Guardian.
Officials named 19 sites they say they failed to censor inappropriate content that could harm young people’s physical and mental health.
State television showed officials seizing equipment from an office while stating that the ministry of public security, along with other government bodies, would begin a crackdown.
The China internet illegal information reporter center—part of the Internet Society of China—claimed that searches on Google and Baidu produced too many links to obscene or pornographic websites.
Baidu has two-thirds of the world’s largest internet population, followed by Google in second place.
The Chinese government frequently launches censorship drives to target pornography and web scams as well as political criticism.
It is feared that the government’s censorship of pornographic sites on these search engines could segue into further censorship restrictions in other areas.