Microsoft & other Companies do censorship for China

[Chewbacca]

Seeing a "made in China" tag on my stuff increasingly fills my mouth with a bad taste. All that crap we buy from there and all the stuff our corporations have the Chineses government corporations make. Even our internet companies support the oppressive behavoirs of the Chinese regime by doing the censorship dirty-work. Stinky.

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5074

China censors internet aided by Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco

The three giant international companies delete blog, filter news and set up censorship systems. Journalists are increasingly targeted.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Government censorship and criminal charges against journalists who criticize the authorities are on the rise. And while the Internet is spreading rapidly and having an impact on tastes and habits, international companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Cisco accept all the restrictions imposed by Beijing, assisting censorship.

This week, Microsoft shut down the blog of a media expert, Zhao Jing, on the site MSN Spaces, after he published an article which criticized the government daily newspaper Beijing News about a “purge” of corrupt officials. "I posted three posts about the Beijing News and all posts and articles were deleted inside China," Zhao said. "MSN Spaces [has] now deleted all of my articles and I have no backup."

The MSN Spaces site is a joint venture between Microsoft and the State-owned Shanghai Alliance Entertainment and it is the main blog-hosting service in China. The US giant has responded by saying that the closure was in line with international norms. Already in 2005, it accepted to block from its site terms like "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence".

But other large firms are also under fire for submitting to the dictates of the Chinese authorities. Besides Yahoo, the other US giant Google is accused of having accepted the deletion of some terms from its Chinese search engine and Cisco Systems and other firms have collaborated with the Chinese government to create an advanced system of censoring information on the internet.

There are at least 60 cyber dissidents in prison – this figure covers only better-known intellectuals – for having disseminated “subversive” material through the internet.

One of these is the author Shi Tao. The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN said the journalist and poet was suffering from respiratory problems and a skin inflammation as a result of forced labour. Shi was sentenced on 27 April 2005 to 10 years in prison for "leaking state secrets abroad”, for having informed the editor of a New York website about government initiatives to prevent commemorations of the 15th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square. The email address of the journalist was revealed to police by the Internet Service Provider Yahoo Inc. On 5 September, Shi was transferred to the high-security Chishan prison in Hunan Province where, according to his family, many inmates have pneumonia or respiratory ailments as a result of forced labour of cutting and polishing jewels.

Another case of censorship and violence regards journalist Ching Cheong. Charges against him are currently being scrutinized by the prosecutors' office in Beijing, which will decide if criminal charges should be filed. Ching, a correspondent for a Singapore newspaper, has been detained for nine months, charged with having sold “secret information” to Taiwan, but the authorities have not revealed any of the evidence against him because it is – they claim – classified information. The journalist has always proclaimed his innocence and now he risks a criminal charge which could mean a heavy sentence. For months, he has not been allowed to see even the lawyer appointed by his newspaper: he will definitely be able to “see him only 10 days before the trial”, said his wife Mary Lau Man-yee.

Meanwhile, the use of internet in China remains widespread: in 2005, internauts exceeded 100 million and the country ranks second worldwide for connections. And to meet the growing thirst for information, new forms of communication have emerged like a 50-minute film called A Hard Day's Night, completed within a day and without a budget by the popular internet site Dai San Ge Biao (which literally means “wears three watches" but is also a play on former leader Jiang Zemin's Three Represents theory”, or San Ge Dai Biao). It is the paradoxical story of a man mistaken by police for a bank robber and then for a famous film star. One of the actors said: “There are no messages, it’s pure fun”. But some reporters have described it as “political satire”, with police portrayed as bumbling or brutal, and the Communist Party's slogans ridiculed.

China ranks among 15 countries condemned by Reporters without Frontiers for being “enemies of the internet”.

[ 01-10-2006, 01:08 AM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

[Hivetyrant]

Good on em'

I believe in freedom of speech, but people know that if they start spreading sh&! around the internet someone is going to do something about it.

[Iron Greasel]

Originally posted by Hivetyrant: Good on em' I believe in freedom of speech, but people know that if they start spreading sh&! around the internet someone is going to do something about it.

I was under the impression that criticism against ones government does not count as sh&!. Even if it is a good government. And the is no sufficient proof that it is one, at least I haven't found any. I'm glad they stopped thinking that communism is inherently evil. Now they just need to stop thinking that governments are inherently good.

[shamrock_uk]

Originally posted by Hivetyrant: Good on em' I believe in freedom of speech, but people know that if they start spreading sh&! around the internet someone is going to do something about it.

Did you really mean this Hive?!

[Timber Loftis]

More of the same. Fox News was lambasting Chinese nuclear technology and rocket technology -- then Murdoch-owned broadcasting companies wanted to bid for the Chinese contracts. Guess what? Yep, Fox News STFU about it. There is almost no corporation that can't be bought -- in fact, that's the very definition of them, purely economic drivers to all decision-making, euphamistically called "duty to the shareholders."

[Thoran]

If you want to play in China you need to play by their rules. Personally I'd love to see a China that is more open and treats their people better, but it's not my call... I'm not Chinese. Neither is it Microsoft's call, in fact their responsibility is to follow the law in the countries they choose to have a presence in. If all of a sudden Microsoft started refusing to follow US Law they'd be shut down... and most of the complaining conservatives (I've read about this elsewhere... so I'm not implying you guys are complaining) would be carrying the pitchforks and torches.

Multinationals walk a fine line, especially when dealing with countries with less than stellar global reputations. The question I always ask myself is: will it be better in the long run for the Chinese if they are engaged with the rest of the world, or would it be better to cut them off based on their perceived poor behavior. I tend to think that LONG term, the more Chinese are exposed to the free and open flow of ideas on the internet (even though the Chinese Government censors... they can't censor it ALL) the better off we'll all be. Microsoft supports Blogging in China... that's a good thing, they're bound to get their hand slapped on occasion but for the one site that gets shut down there will be others that pop up using the technology that Microsoft provides, but wouldn't be able to provide if they weren't dancing to Beijing's tune when needed.

[ 01-10-2006, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]

[Azred]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: There is almost no corporation that can't be bought -- in fact, that's the very definition of them, purely economic drivers to all decision-making, euphamistically called "duty to the shareholders."

That is why the "shareholder model" of corporations needs to be changed...but that is a fight and a discussion for another day.

China is going to do nasty stuff until enough Chinese people get tired of thier government doing nasty stuff. Until then...all anyone can do is watch.

[Chewbacca]

Originally posted by Thoran: If you want to play in China you need to play by their rules. Personally I'd love to see a China that is more open and treats their people better, but it's not my call... I'm not Chinese. Neither is it Microsoft's call, in fact their responsibility is to follow the law in the countries they choose to have a presence in. If all of a sudden Microsoft started refusing to follow US Law they'd be shut down... and most of the complaining conservatives (I've read about this elsewhere... so I'm not implying you guys are complaining) would be carrying the pitchforks and torches. Multinationals walk a fine line, especially when dealing with countries with less than stellar global reputations. The question I always ask myself is: will it be better in the long run for the Chinese if they are engaged with the rest of the world, or would it be better to cut them off based on their perceived poor behavior. I tend to think that LONG term, the more Chinese are exposed to the free and open flow of ideas on the internet (even though the Chinese Government censors... they can't censor it ALL) the better off we'll all be. Microsoft supports Blogging in China... that's a good thing, they're bound to get their hand slapped on occasion but for the one site that gets shut down there will be others that pop up using the technology that Microsoft provides, but wouldn't be able to provide if they weren't dancing to Beijing's tune when needed.

That's a great post. [img]smile.gif[/img] Thanks for the perspective!

[wellard]

Originally posted by Thoran: The question I always ask myself is: will it be better in the long run for the Chinese if they are engaged with the rest of the world, or would it be better to cut them off based on their perceived poor behavior. I tend to think that LONG term, the more Chinese are exposed to the free and open flow of ideas on the internet (even though the Chinese Government censors... they can't censor it ALL) the better off we'll all be.

Great post [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

With the increase in encryption software censorship will be harder to police. Coupled with a massive increase in Chinese tourism I visualize the Chinese government like king Canute trying to hold back the tide of change. These actions are probably to appease the old guard. And though I find the actions of Microsoft disturbing is it any worse than USA (or European) private arms manufactures selling tools of repression / terror / mass destruction to rogue governments around the world?

[Azred]

Originally posted by wellard: With the increase in encryption software censorship will be harder to police.

You mean like this:

42 5D 7B 3B 46 5E 1B 20 2B 5B 73 96 45 5C 7A 26 38 4B 5F 76 9A 65 88 B3 33 4A 61 42 5D 7B 4F 5F 81 9A 4C 5F

Anyone is welcome to try to decrypt that. That one uses my own personal algorithm. [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img]

[ 01-11-2006, 08:16 PM: Message edited by: Azred ]