Microsoft yanks China blog
p2p news / p2pnet: Microsoft is still working hand-in-glove with Communist China. Or as a Microsoft spokesperson once put it, MSN, "abides by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates".
Bill and the Boyz closed the blog site of a well-known Chinese blogger who uses its MSN online service in China, "after he discussed a high-profile newspaper strike that broke out here one week ago," says the New York Times, going on:
"The decision is the latest in a series of measures in which some of America’s biggest technology companies have cooperated with the Chinese authorities to censor Web sites and curb dissent or free speech online as they seek access to China’s booming Internet marketplace."
Not that Microsoft is alone in this. Yahoo! and Google have also signed what amount to censorship agreements with the China Internet Information Center, the government watchdog that polices web site content in China.
The site Microsoft yanked was created by Zhao Jing, "a well-known blogger with an online pen name, An Ti," says the NYT. "Mr. Zhao, 30, also works as a research assistant in the Beijing bureau of The New York Times.
"The blog was removed last week from a Microsoft service called MSN Spaces after the blog discussed the firing of the independent-minded editor of The Beijing News, which prompted 100 journalists at the paper to go on strike Dec. 29. It was an unusual show of solidarity for a Chinese news organization in an industry that has complied with tight restrictions on what can be published."
The newspaper also says Zhao Yan (no relation to Zhao Jing), another of its research assistants, was indicted last month, "on charges that he passed state secrets to the newspaper, which published a report in 2004 about the timing of Jiang Zemin’s decision to give up the country’s top military post".
"Mr. Zhao said in an interview Thursday that Microsoft chose to delete his blog on Dec. 30 with no warning," says the story.
"I didn’t even say I supported the strike," it has him saying. "This action by Microsoft infringed upon my freedom of speech. They even deleted my blog and gave me no chance to back up my files without any warning."
Also See:
New York Times – Microsoft Shuts Blog’s Site After Complaints by Beijing, January 6, 2006
government watchdog – Microsoft as China censor, June 17, 2005
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If you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent website blocking outside of China.
Download it here and feel free to copy the zip and host it yourself so others can download it.
