Posted on 01/04/2006 2:19:01 PM PST by Panerai
Microsoft has admitted to removing the blog of an outspoken Chinese journalist from its MSN Spaces site, citing its policy of adhering to local laws.
The blog, written by Zhao Jing, also known as Michael Anti, was removed from MSN servers on Dec. 31, according to investigative journalist and former CNN reporter Rebecca Mackinnon. She claimed that the blog was actively removed by MSN staff rather than being blocked by Chinese authorities.
A Microsoft representative told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that it blocked Anti's MSN Space blog to help ensure that the service complied with local laws in China.
"MSN is committed to ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms and industry practices. Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users. Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements," the representative said.
Questions still remain over why a site believed to be hosted in the United States has to comply with Chinese law. Microsoft responded to requests for more information on this issue by stating that "Microsoft is a multinational business and, as such, needs to manage the reality of operating in countries around the world."
Responding to Mackinnon's report, Microsoft's own in-house blogger, Robert Scoble, said he was "depressed" by the news and offered Anti the opportunity to blog via his site.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
In other non-political actual criminal issues they'd howl and join the ACLU to protect civil rights.
right.
I question the use of the word 'censorship,', since this isn't the government per se (of either country) stifling the expression. Certainly it's suppression, editorial control, etc. but let's not fall into the libs' camp where they scream 'censorship' every time somebody elects not to listen to gangsta rap.
Like all corporations...Microsoft is a Money Whore.
So much for liberals giving me lectures when I was young about American Companies that made deals with the Nazis to turn in or fire Jews.
Where's the divestment from South Africa crowd now?
Microsoft was just following orders...
This is no different really, than the modus operandi of Washington. The all-mightly dollar and politics trump all else -- regardless of its impact or implications.
MS is just playing the same game.
Our daily "Bill Gates is the Antichrist" update.
In the article, it poses questions about why an American-based blogger should be subject to chinese communist laws. I'm kind of wondering the same thing.
Microsoft - an equal opportunity whore!
Which country--with which unalienable rights--allowed Microsoft to become the economic giant in the first place??
HMMMmmmMM?
The guy is in China and the server is most likely in the US.
Still, I'm pissed they would do something like this. Let the Chinese enforce their own damn laws. They could've blocked the guy's access to the net. MS did this just to ingratiate themselves with the Chinese.
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