‘Sold technology to Chinese police’
p2pnet.net News:- Business dealings with China by major US corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have bolstered Beijing’s ability to limit and control Net freedom, says Reporters Without Borders.
“You sold technology to Chinese police,” charges RWB’s Julien Pain, quoted in a Reuters story on a four-day meeting, hosted by Greece, aimed at, “discussing the future of the Internet with all stake holders, including governments, businesses and rights groups”.
“The governments of democratic countries should regulate the activities of Internet companies to prevent this kind of abuse,” it has Pain saying.
China employs an estimated 30,000 people, “to trawl Web sites for subversive material and is a leading jailer of journalists, with at least 32 in custody, and another 50 Internet campaigners also in prison,” says RWB in the story, which goes on:
“The largest U.S. network equipment maker Cisco and several other U.S. technology companies, including Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., are facing the ire of some U.S. lawmakers, activists and investors for their alleged complicity in allowing the Chinese government to commit human rights abuses.
“China, which will host the 2008 Olympics, has been under increasing pressure to soften its grip on the Internet. It buys Cisco Systems Inc. technology, which is used to direct Internet traffic, through independent resellers of its products.”
But, “We sold the same equipment we sell in any country around the world,” Reuters has Art Reilly, Cisco’s senior director for strategic technology policy telling forum listeners. “We are selling the same product everywhere. We are not colluding with any government.”
He said Cisco technology sold to China would allow a secure information flow. “It is essential that there has to be security..to provide security to allow the freeflow of information. It is the same technology for libraries for example”.
And Microsoft senior counsel Fred Tipson denied that some big businesses were “colluding” with certain governments, says the BBC, observing that Tipson and Reilly were the only two representatives of major business on the panel.
Britain’s Committee on Foreign Affairs recently specifically named Google,Yahoo and Microsoft were for actively working with China to police the Net.
To the, “dismay of human rights organisations,” the three are among western firms which have, “recently adapted their products in order to gain access to the Chinese market, by developing technology which censors their web-browsers in accordance with government diktat,” said the Committee on Foreign Affairs Seventh Report.
‘Do No Evil’ Google’s help page used to state, “Google does not censor results for any search term” and, “We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the web to determine the inclusion and ranking of sites in our search results.”
But not any more. These days, it reads, “It is Google’s policy not to censor search results. However, in response to local laws, regulations, or policies, we may do so. When we remove search results for these reasons, we display a notice on our search results pages. Please note: For some older removals (before March 2005), we may not show a notice at this time.”
RWB’s Pain, “presented the conference with what he said were leaflets from a U.S. company, distributed during a trade show in Shanghai, advertising their policing and surveillance systems,” said Reuters.
Meanwhile, Li Jianping, arrested for posting essays advocating greater online democracy was jailed for three years after being charged with, “inciting subversion with an Internet essay praising pro-rights protests in Hong Kong”.
Also See:
Reuters – China web control stirs controversy at Internet forum, October 31, 2006
BBC – Firms defend dealings with China, October 31, 2006
police the Net – China Net censors named, August 14, 2006
used to state – Google’s China censor probed, June 19, 2006
jailed for three years – Cyber-dissident Li Jianping jailed, October 27, 2006
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