Executives from China's top Internet companies pledged to boost efforts to curb 'harmful' online content at an unusual government meeting with Web firms, highlighting the closer attention authorities are giving regulation of the Internet as it challenges the government's control over the flow of information.
The heightened government attention is unlikely to prevent the companies from continuing to operate, but the extra attention could further complicate the regulatory environment for Web firms and add to their costs. Bigger Internet companies employ hundreds of content monitors in order to stay in compliance with censorship rules.
Attendees at the meeting, which ended Saturday, included Baidu Inc. Chief Executive Robin Li, Tencent Holdings Ltd. Chairman Pony Ma, Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma, and top executives from Sina Corp. and China's three telecommunications operators, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. Xinhua reported that the companies agreed that "Internet companies must strengthen their self-management, self-restraint and strict self-discipline" and must prevent the online spread of "illegal and harmful" content such as rumors, pornography, and fraudulent information.
Company officials didn't immediately comment or couldn't be reached on Sunday.
The meeting was a multiple-day policy-training event held on the outskirts of Beijing, similar to training sessions often held for government officials to review new regulations, people familiar with the matter said. It comes as part of a broader government campaign to increase oversight of the nation's fast-growing Internet sector.
The session comes as social media websites, particularly popular Twitter-like microblogging services run by Sina and Tencent, have become platforms for freewheeling, real-time discussion, including on controversial topics ranging from a train accident in Wenzhou that Internet users accused the government of mishandling to the recent news that a toddler killed in a double hit-and-run accident had been ignored by more than a dozen passersby.
China has more than 500 million Internet users, according to government statistics, which would total the most of any nation.
High-level officials in Beijing have increasingly shown interest in further regulating the Internet sector, a booming business shaped by nongovernment-owned companies, beyond existing requirements for the companies to take down what the government deems to be "harmful" content. This ranges from pornography to political topics such as Tibetan independence and the Falun Gong spiritual group.
In recent months, Beijing has established a new Internet regulatory agency, while officials have visited executives from China's biggest Web firms, including Baidu, Tencent, Sina, and online video company Youku.com Inc.
Shenzhen-based Tencent in recent days said that Beijing's Communist Party chief Liu Qi, also a member of the Communist Party's powerful Politburo, visited its office in Beijing on Nov. 1, and met with its top executives. During the visit, Chen Yidan, Tencent's chief administration officer,"introduced Tencent's work in realizing guidance of public opinion and the dissemination of advanced culture and correct information," the company said in a write-up of the meeting posted on its corporate website.
Earlier this month, the Communist Party Central Committee issued a directive on culture that called for strengthening "guidance and management" of social networking and instant-messaging applications and punishing the spread of "harmful" materials online. The report also called for better security to "uphold public interests and national security."
Analysts say much of the increased scrutiny is part of the lead-up to a once-a-decade leadership change next year that will impact the nation's top ranks.