Microsoft’s new China rules
p2p news / p2pnet: Public opinion has forced Microsoft to take a partial step down in its policy of cooperation with Communist China.
The company recently yanked the blog of well-known Chinese blogger Zhao Jing who uses – or used to use – the MSN online service in China.
He’d committed the inexcusable crime of discussing a high-profile newspaper strike.
Now, " Microsoft will remove access to blog content only when it receives a legally binding notice from the government indicating that the material violates local laws, or if the content violates MSN’s terms of use," it says in a statement.
On maintaining global access, "Microsoft will remove access to content only in the country issuing the order. When blog content is blocked due to restrictions based on local laws, the rest of the world will continue to have access. This is a new capability Microsoft is implementing in the MSN Spaces infrastructure."
And on transparent user notification, "When local laws require the company to block access to certain content, Microsoft will ensure that users know why that content was blocked, by notifying them that access has been limited due to a government restriction."
Google and Yahoo are just as guilty of kowtowing to China in the interests of the Almighty Dollar and it remains to be seen if they’ll match, or better, the move by Bill and the Boyz.
Also See:
inexcusable crime – Microsoft yanks China blog, January 6, 2006
statement – Microsoft Outlines Policy Framework for Dealing with Government Restrictions on Blog Content, January 31, 2006
