Baidu, Sohu get ensnared in latest Chinese Internet clampdown

This photo taken on November 6, 2018 shows a man walking past a booth of Baidu at the Light of Internet Expo ahead of the 5th World Internet Conference in Wuzhen in China's eastern Zhejiang province. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT

China’s cyberspace police have ordered Baidu Inc and Sohu.com Ltd to suspend a plethora of news services for a week, kicking off an online clean-up campaign with two of the country’s biggest Internet corporations. 

The Cyberspace Administration of China on Thursday announced it was starting a six-month effort to eradicate “vulgar information” from a plethora of online media, including messaging services and livestreaming platforms. The Beijing branch of the watchdog said it summoned executives from both firms and ordered several of Baidu’s and Sohu’s news and content feeds to suspend updates from Jan 3 to Jan 10 while they root out undesirable content.