UUSee.com was the first of two Chinese video on demand (VOD) websites, one run by CNET Networks International, to issue a letter of public apology on its homepage yesterday, bowing to pressure from a quasi industry monitoring group created last year as major sites signed a pact of self-discipline as part of China’s campaign for a “civilized Internet.” [BELOW: Public letter of apology from UUSee.com].
The move was apparently the first disciplinary action taken by the Beijing Internet News and Information Counseling Conference, a mysterious self-monitoring group for the Internet industry charged with exercising the letter of a self-discipline pact signed by websites in April 2006.
Precious little information is available about how this unofficial oversight body operates, or how its makes its decisions concerning Web discipline. While the text of the UUSee apology suggests the sites may have fallen afoul of the group (of censors?) due to obscene or sexually explicit content, there is no indication of the exact nature of that content, and the UUSee.com letter pledges somewhat vaguely to combat “sexual, obscene or other forms of illegal content.”
Coverage of the UUsee apology in the tech section at Tom.com, another major Chinese Web portal, was headlined “Two Websites Hit Erotic ‘Lineballs'” (两网站打色情”擦边球”), a reference similar to the English “push the envelope” and suggesting the sites might have run lightly erotic content.
CMP was unable to locate a letter of public apology from Zol.com.cn, which was also pressed by the counseling conference on May 9 to issue an apology and submit to an investigation. The site’s parent company is CNET Networks International Media.
The text of the UUSee.com apology letter follows:
From UUSee.com
Respected Web Users:
On May 9, 2007, the Beijing Internet News and Information Counseling Conference, in light of insufficiently strong self-examination on the part of UUSee.com, leading to the existence of unfavorable content (不良内容), decided to charge UUSee.com with issuing a public apology, and UUSee.com herein accepts this decision with an open mind and expresses its apologies for the harm done to Web users.
Since the Beijing Internet News and Information Counseling Conference released it’s the bulletin for its first counseling conference of 2007, a campaign has been carried out across the Internet targeting obscene content of a sexual nature, promoting a wave of green Internet operation (绿色办网) [IE, “a wholesome Internet environment”]. During this movement, owing to the insufficiency of our own examination, content uploaded by Web users was not thoroughly and comprehensively eliminated, so that unfavorable content was uploaded by Web users, and as these contents were harmful to society, our Website offers a heartfelt apology to all Web users.
Before the bulletin from the counseling conference was released, our Website had already generated a proposal for strict and thorough changes, eliminating video on demand programming of a sexual nature, and carrying out a thorough examination of our content. Moreover, we created an “unfavorable information informing center” section on our homepage, inviting everyone to conduct supervision of uncivilized online content (网络不文明现象). If uncivilized content is discovered in our Internet community, we will in future move promptly to keep a record [of the content], remove it [from the Web] and make a report to higher authorities. We will in future by our actions practically and effectively take up the social responsibility and mission of civilized Internet media for Beijing, and the building a harmonious society, working with the whole society to thoroughly combat sexual, obscene or other forms of illegal content.
We will in future take a direction of strengthening positive content, returning more high-quality content to Web users and to society.
[Posted by David Bandurski, May 11, 2007, 11:38pm]

The move was apparently the first disciplinary action taken by the Beijing Internet News and Information Counseling Conference, a mysterious self-monitoring group for the Internet industry charged with exercising the letter of a self-discipline pact signed by websites in April 2006.
Precious little information is available about how this unofficial oversight body operates, or how its makes its decisions concerning Web discipline. While the text of the UUSee apology suggests the sites may have fallen afoul of the group (of censors?) due to obscene or sexually explicit content, there is no indication of the exact nature of that content, and the UUSee.com letter pledges somewhat vaguely to combat “sexual, obscene or other forms of illegal content.”
Coverage of the UUsee apology in the tech section at Tom.com, another major Chinese Web portal, was headlined “Two Websites Hit Erotic ‘Lineballs'” (两网站打色情”擦边球”), a reference similar to the English “push the envelope” and suggesting the sites might have run lightly erotic content.
CMP was unable to locate a letter of public apology from Zol.com.cn, which was also pressed by the counseling conference on May 9 to issue an apology and submit to an investigation. The site’s parent company is CNET Networks International Media.
The text of the UUSee.com apology letter follows:
From UUSee.com
Respected Web Users:
On May 9, 2007, the Beijing Internet News and Information Counseling Conference, in light of insufficiently strong self-examination on the part of UUSee.com, leading to the existence of unfavorable content (不良内容), decided to charge UUSee.com with issuing a public apology, and UUSee.com herein accepts this decision with an open mind and expresses its apologies for the harm done to Web users.
Since the Beijing Internet News and Information Counseling Conference released it’s the bulletin for its first counseling conference of 2007, a campaign has been carried out across the Internet targeting obscene content of a sexual nature, promoting a wave of green Internet operation (绿色办网) [IE, “a wholesome Internet environment”]. During this movement, owing to the insufficiency of our own examination, content uploaded by Web users was not thoroughly and comprehensively eliminated, so that unfavorable content was uploaded by Web users, and as these contents were harmful to society, our Website offers a heartfelt apology to all Web users.
Before the bulletin from the counseling conference was released, our Website had already generated a proposal for strict and thorough changes, eliminating video on demand programming of a sexual nature, and carrying out a thorough examination of our content. Moreover, we created an “unfavorable information informing center” section on our homepage, inviting everyone to conduct supervision of uncivilized online content (网络不文明现象). If uncivilized content is discovered in our Internet community, we will in future move promptly to keep a record [of the content], remove it [from the Web] and make a report to higher authorities. We will in future by our actions practically and effectively take up the social responsibility and mission of civilized Internet media for Beijing, and the building a harmonious society, working with the whole society to thoroughly combat sexual, obscene or other forms of illegal content.
We will in future take a direction of strengthening positive content, returning more high-quality content to Web users and to society.
[Posted by David Bandurski, May 11, 2007, 11:38pm]