China’s most popular search engine Baidu apologized Wednesday for hosting hyperlinks to pornographic composition after it was criticized by the government, saying it was sorry for the negative impact on society.

The Chinese government blocks access to many Web sites it considers subversive or too political, and Net companies regularly self-censor to keep from running afoul of the authorities.

Baidu and Google were among 19 Web sites criticized Monday for carrying vulgar or pornographic substance, as seven government agencies launched

a one-month campaign to clean up China’s Web composition.

The two companies had folded to take “efficient” measures after receiving notices from the country’s Net watchdog, the government said.

“Besides deleting the obscene substance and urls concerned, we have improved our regulatory system,” Baidu said in a notice on its Web site. “We apologize to the netizens at large for the negative impacts we brought upon the society.”

Google could not immediately be […]

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