david_dawei Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 http://www.pcw.co.uk/vnunet/news/2148091/m...kowtows-chineseMicrosoft kowtows to Chinese censorsEven Redmond's own staff are horrified Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 05 Jan 2006 Microsoft has joined Yahoo in the dubious club of companies willing to stifle free speech when the Chinese government tells them to. The company has taken down a blog written by journalist Zhao Jing, also known as Michael Anti, from its MSN Spaces portal. Zhoa Jing, a Beijing-based researcher for the New York Times, was critical of a recent management change in China and the government asked Microsoft to remove the blog. "Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the internet safe for local users," said a Microsoft spokesperson. "Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements. This MSN Space has been blocked to help ensure that the service complies with local laws in China." However, since Zhoa Jing has not been convicted of any crime it is unclear which local laws have been broken. Daniel Simons, legal officer at free expression advocacy group Article 19, said: " There are two questions here. The first is ethical: how far do you go in working with a government in subjugating its citizens? "The second is what Chinese law actually says. Most of this kind of censorship comes about due to agreements between companies and the Chinese government rather than what is required by law." Simons added that the UN recently issued a declaration (PDF) stating that "corporations which provide internet searching, chat, publishing or other services should make an effort to ensure that they respect the rights of their clients to use the internet without interference". The move has also brought sharp criticism from Microsoft's own blogger Robert Scoble. In a recent entry he likened the behaviour of his employers to the situation in Germany in the 1930s. "It's one thing to pull a list of words out of blogs using an algorithm. It's another to become an agent of a government and censor an entire blogger's work, " he wrote. "Guys over at MSN: sorry, I don't agree with your being used as a state-run thug." Link to comment
Guest ShaQuaNew Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 (edited) Personally, I think controlling hate speech and blogs is vital to a nations success. Edited January 5, 2006 by ShaQuaNew (see edit history) Link to comment
frank1538 Posted January 5, 2006 Report Share Posted January 5, 2006 I have one word....Money Link to comment
Yuanyang Posted January 6, 2006 Report Share Posted January 6, 2006 Microsoft is not required to do business in China. When doing business in China, England, Saudi Arabia or any other country requires one to obey the law of that country. Do female reporters 'sell-out' when in Saudi Arabia by wearing head scarves? No, they are submitting to the customs of their host country. Link to comment
mercator Posted January 6, 2006 Report Share Posted January 6, 2006 Microsoft doesnt make much money in China, relatively speaking. You can buy hacks of XP and XP Chinese for nothing. The only thing I can think of is that they are scratching the PRC's back in hopes they will crack down on piracy? Link to comment
david_dawei Posted January 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2006 Microsoft doesnt make much money in China, relatively speaking. You can buy hacks of XP and XP Chinese for nothing. The only thing I can think of is that they are scratching the PRC's back in hopes they will crack down on piracy?180278[/snapback]http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?ar...+China&id=11563 ........Microsoft has several ventures in China, including a wholly owned subsidiary and two software joint ventures, and employs more than 900 people there. MSN, the company's online-services division, has enjoyed strong growth in the country: Microsoft says the number of MSN Messenger users jumped 25% to nine million in four months after the Chinese version was launched last May, and the number of visits to MSN Chinese-language Web sites was up 133% over the same four-month period. Link to comment
david_dawei Posted January 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2006 (edited) http://dailynews.muzi.com/news/ll/english/....shtml?cc=10002 Microsoft faces backlash after blocking Chinese blogger ......Yahoo! came under fire for turning over to Chinese police the e-mail records of journalist Shi Tao, after he circulated on the Internet a government order to suppress all media commemorations of the 15th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown of the Tiananmen democracy protests. The disclosure led to Shi being jailed last year for 10 years. US giant Google has also been accused of censoring its Chinese language search engine, while Cisco Systems Inc and other firms have been accused of helping set up what has come to be known as the "Great Firewall of China," one of the world's most advanced systems of censoring information on the Internet. US Verso Technologies also said in November last year it had sold software to a major, but undisclosed, Chinese telecoms firm that will allow China to block popular free Internet telephone services such as Skype. Edited January 7, 2006 by DavidZixuan (see edit history) Link to comment
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