Running Windows

Microsoft Shuts Blog's Site After Complaints by Beijing

New York Times: Microsoft has shut 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.

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.

Microsoft drew criticism last summer when it was discovered that its blog tool in China was designed to filter words like "democracy" and "human rights" from blog titles. The company said Thursday that it must "comply with global and local laws."

"This is a complex and difficult issue," said Brooke Richardson, a group product manager for MSN in Seattle. "We think it's better to be there with our services than not be there."

The site pulled down was a popular one created by Zhao Jing, a well-known blogger with an online pen name, An Ti. 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.

Ugh, as if we needed another reason to hate Microsoft.

It's really gutless for a billion-dollar company to shrug its shoulders and say well, what can you do. They should just be honest--we'll pour millions into fighting software piracy in China because it's costing us money; we won't fight censorship because to do so would cost us money.

It's quite shameless; Bill Gates and his company owe everything they have to being from America. But when it comes to sticking up for American values abroad, they turn traitor.

And that's what it is. We're not talking about an American company complying with local laws or customs outof a desire to respect their host country, or as a result of a careful balancing act. There's no inherent 'good' reason to help enforce Chinese censorship--no countervailing value on the other side.

Microsoft's spokesperson says it's better to be in China than not. I doubt the Chinese could afford to throw Microsoft out, so it's a red herring to say those are the stakes.

In this day and age, software is like gunpowder--writing software with built-in censorship on spec for the old generals in Beijing is no different than running guns for some banana republic dictatorship.

Microsoft's already a collaborater at best; by helping the government keep the lid on self-expression in China, it may wind up one day with blood on its hands.

And if what happens to some Chinese guy doesn't matter to you, it can be put in terms even the most xenophobic among us can understand.

As the Times reports: Rebecca MacKinnon, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, wrote on her blog, referring to Microsoft and other technology companies: "Can we be sure they won't do the same thing in response to potentially illegal demands by an overzealous government agency in our own country?"

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

Quotation by Rev. Martin Niemoller is one of various versions found in various places on the Internet, see here for a discussion of the quote.

AFP Photo of Bill Gates in Beijing in 2003 via CNN story.