Posted on 06/24/2005 7:21:17 AM PDT by Srirangan
Source: AsiaTimes
HONG KONG - As China further tightens state controls over Internet use, overseas rights groups are criticizing US software giant Microsoft for agreeing to censor politically sensitive terms such as "democracy" and "human rights" from personal online diaries - known as blogs - written by Chinese citizens.
The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it had confirmed that certain key words were now being censored from text posted by Chinese users to blogs hosted by Microsoft's MSN Spaces service. "When a Chinese blogger attempts to post a message containing terms such as 'democracy', 'Dalai Lama', 'Falungong', '4 June' [the date of the Tiananmen Square crackdown], 'China + corruption', or 'human rights', a warning displays saying, 'This message contains a banned expression, please delete this expression'," RSF said in a statement on its website.
"Following Yahoo!, here is a second American Internet giant giving way to the Chinese authorities and agreeing to self-censorship. The lack of ethics on the part of these companies is extremely worrying," RSF said. Like Yahoo! and Google before it, Microsoft justified its compliance with censorship requirements in terms of China's legal system. "MSN abides by the laws, regulations, and norms of each country in which it operates," Brooke Richardson, MSN's lead product manager, told reporters last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at india-defence.com ...
When will Bill Gates start constructing gulags in China for those Chinese who break the law?
MS has shown a willingness to help Hollywood track down filetraders and software pirates.
The only winning move is "not to play". Deny your product and services. Would Microsoft have prohibited Jewish terms an early 1930s German version of their software? It WAS the law after all.
The recording industry boycotted South Africa and wrote a song about it (I'm not gonna play) Sun City.
As corporations increasingly deal with the Chicoms, we forget just what so bad about Communism to begin with. When tell-tale reminders raise their head, we ignore the "unpleasantries".
Tell me, did Microsoft encourage/protect homosexuals when same sex sodomy was a crime or did they discourage it and the use of such terms?
ping
Same information, different text.
whoops, guess this is a new article tech ping worthy.. maybe?
There are people who get worked up about Communism. The socialists in the media and educational system have portrayed us as dangerous kooks.
What are all those MS commercials talking about how they empower kids and people... I guess that only counts if you're not a kid who lives under communism and wants freedom.
Would I blame MS if the Chinese were buying iis and doing this? no not in the least, but this is a case of the Microsoft controlled information and sites..
Pathetic, the American knife in the back of those who died Jun 4, 89 just keeps getting pushed in further. WTO, Most Favored Nation trade status, and American companies now directly helping these beast who oppress more than 20% of the worlds population..
Bill Gates will start building gulags in China as soon as they will provide him the slave labor for it. Until then, he is busy putting American engineers, scientists, etc. out of work by bribing, er "lobbying", Congress for more H1-B & H2-B visas, so he can hire more foreign neo-slaves - all the while, whining about the "shortage" of Americans with technological skills.
American companies boycotting china would simply give all the business and future business potential to their european competitors. No Fortune 100 company can afford to let that happen. Also, I imagine the multinational don't give a fig about the policies of the chinese government.
Some key players in international capitalism, unfortunately, are unfortunately willing to compromise on freedom and liberty.
There are people who get worked up about Communism. The socialists in the media and educational system have portrayed us as dangerous kooks.
True, but we are not a part of the "Politically Correct" world.
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