China penalizes Web sites for questionable content

China shut down or punish dozens of video-sharing Web sites for carrying content deemed pornographic, violent or a threat to national security under rules that tighten Internet controls, a regulator said yesterday.

Chinese Web surfers have been blocked from seeing foreign sites -- including YouTube.com -- with video about protests in Tibet, but the new order did not mention the demonstrations or China's security crackdown.

One China's most popular video-sharing sites, Tudou.com (土豆), was among those penalized, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said. It gave no details of Tudou's violation or penalty. Other major competitors such as Youku.com and 56.com were not cited.

Rules took effect on Jan. 31 ban online video that involves national secrets, hurts the reputation of China, disrupts social stability or promotes pornography. Web sites are required to delete and report such content.

Regulators ordered 25 Web sites to shut down and will punish 32 others following a two-month investigation, the SARFT said on its Web site. It gave no details of penalties. Phone calls to SARFT were not answered.

A Tudou.com vice president, Dan Brody, said the site received a warning and is upgrading its systems. He declined further comment.

Chinese see video-sharing as a promising industry and have tried to strike a balance between enforcing censorship and letting fast-growing sites compete for visitors.

The government announced in December that all video-sharing sites had to be state-owned. It backed off following warnings that state ownership would stifle the industry and said any properly licensed company already operating could continue.

Companies the penalties were coming, and they do not appear to be connected to efforts to keep Web surfers from seeing the protests in Tibet, said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China Ltd, a Beijing consulting firm.

The Internet has quickly grown to become a mass medium in a country where the government owns all newspapers and broadcasters and enforces the ruling Chinese Communist Party's censorship guidelines. Some sites say they get 100 million visitors a day, an audience that rivals that of the biggest state television channels.

"It's niche no longer, so the party takes the view that it's mass media, so it has to be subject to the same controls," Clark said.

Chinese Web surfers have been blocked from seeing YouTube after video about the Tibet protests appeared on the popular US site.

Clark Chinese sites are "on this tightrope," trying to carry eye-catching content without risking government sanctions and scaring off foreign investors.

"You kind of want to be a little bit the bad boy, but ultimately the government can shut you down," he said.

Clark Tudou.com "the most edgy" of major Chinese video-sharing Web sites.

SARFT most of the Web sites that were punished showed pornography or violence, or broadcast movies or documentaries that "endangered national security and national interest."

Some the 25 sites that were told to shut down were the video-sharing sections of Internet forums.

China 210 million Internet users and says it expects to surpass the US this year as the biggest population of Internet users.