China to purge 'unhealthy' sites on internet

SHANGHAI, China (Reuters) -- China's top Web portals, including Sina Corp. and Tom Online, have agreed to rid their sites of "unhealthy" content, amid a broader Beijing campaign to clean up the Internet.

Other major players in the self-policing drive include Sohu.com Inc., NetEase.com Inc., Baidu.com Inc. and Yahoo Inc.'s China Web portal, according to the text of a pledge by 14 companies posted on Sina's Web site.

U.S. search giant Google Inc., which has come under fire for agreeing to self-censor its China Web site to filter out politically sensitive issues, was not on the list, and nor was Microsoft's MSN Network, which also operates in China.

The firms' pledge states that the Internet has become an important source of information and entertainment in China, now the world's second-biggest market with over 100 million surfers.

"At the same time as the Web develops quickly, certain sites are transmitting unhealthy news ... and uncivilized voice services, including pornographic content that can be harmful to society," said the pledge, which was dated earlier this month in a posting on Sina's Web site.
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