Dave Neuendorf
Microsoft collaborates with Communist Chinese censorship
By Dave Neuendorf
The internet has had profound effects on life in our time. It has changed the way we buy and sell things. It has provided many novel ways of communicating person to person. Perhaps most significantly, it has created a trend away from the near monopoly of "big media" over the mass dissemination of information and opinion.
Almost anyone can publish a web site with any content imaginable. An even easier method of publication is the web log, or "blog:" an online journal on some topic. Most importantly, blogging has become a popular format for opinion publishing. Many blogs are read by thousands of internet users and have an impact on public opinion. Web searches on sites like google.com or clusty.com (my favorite) have made it easy for anyone to find the web sites or blogs of interest to them.
This trend toward freer flow of information has given renewed hope to many citizens that they can participate effectively in government decision making. It should also tend to keep the conventional media honest, since cover-ups or media blackouts are likely to be noticed and exposed by any number of internet publishers. I doubt that the New York Times enjoys being scooped by the Drudge Report, for example.
So far, the massive influence of internet users has been able to keep even the federal government's hands off of this new medium, for the most part. Only the most egregious abuses of internet communication, such as child pornography, have been interfered with.
Strangely, the most dangerous attacks on free expression are coming instead from the private sector: large internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Competing for the huge internet market in the People's Republic of China, when the communist government says "jump," these companies ask only "how high?"
Integral to governing a communist country is crushing any form of dissent. To accomplish this, the government must have tight control over the flow of information. The internet poses a problem with that, of course. Red China has thus enlisted the help of the companies providing search and other internet services.
Google and Yahoo routinely block people in China from seeing search results containing any criticism of the communist government. According to Reporters Without Borders, Yahoo also helped the communists track down and jail a Chinese dissident journalist who had posted an incriminating government document.
The actions of Google and Yahoo are examples of the craven behavior expected of those who put money above any principles. But so far they have at least restricted their abuse to the Chinese people. According to a January 5, 2006 article on the WorldNetDaily.com site, Microsoft has gone a large step beyond that and killed a blog on its MSN Spaces hosting site because it was critical of the Chinese government. Presumably the blog was hosted in the US; if so, Microsoft has begun censoring US-based web publication.
I think these actions indicate a disturbing trend. If they pass without loud public objection, the corporate perpetrators will be emboldened to exercise increasing control over content that passes through their systems. It's a small step from censoring foreign bloggers on behalf of totalitarian governments to censoring American authors who are critical of those same governments. From there, what is to stop them from censoring any content with which they disagree?
The owners of blogs on MSN Spaces need to hear from outraged Americans. There are many other places on the web that host blogs; MSN bloggers who don't like the idea of Microsoft censoring political content should move their blogs to other providers. I suggest that anyone who cares about free speech go down the list of blogs on MSN and suggest this to as many as they can. We need to make it painful for even a juggernaut like Microsoft to collaborate with totalitarians in censoring internet content.
© Dave Neuendorf
The internet has had profound effects on life in our time. It has changed the way we buy and sell things. It has provided many novel ways of communicating person to person. Perhaps most significantly, it has created a trend away from the near monopoly of "big media" over the mass dissemination of information and opinion.
Almost anyone can publish a web site with any content imaginable. An even easier method of publication is the web log, or "blog:" an online journal on some topic. Most importantly, blogging has become a popular format for opinion publishing. Many blogs are read by thousands of internet users and have an impact on public opinion. Web searches on sites like google.com or clusty.com (my favorite) have made it easy for anyone to find the web sites or blogs of interest to them.
This trend toward freer flow of information has given renewed hope to many citizens that they can participate effectively in government decision making. It should also tend to keep the conventional media honest, since cover-ups or media blackouts are likely to be noticed and exposed by any number of internet publishers. I doubt that the New York Times enjoys being scooped by the Drudge Report, for example.
So far, the massive influence of internet users has been able to keep even the federal government's hands off of this new medium, for the most part. Only the most egregious abuses of internet communication, such as child pornography, have been interfered with.
Strangely, the most dangerous attacks on free expression are coming instead from the private sector: large internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Competing for the huge internet market in the People's Republic of China, when the communist government says "jump," these companies ask only "how high?"
Integral to governing a communist country is crushing any form of dissent. To accomplish this, the government must have tight control over the flow of information. The internet poses a problem with that, of course. Red China has thus enlisted the help of the companies providing search and other internet services.
Google and Yahoo routinely block people in China from seeing search results containing any criticism of the communist government. According to Reporters Without Borders, Yahoo also helped the communists track down and jail a Chinese dissident journalist who had posted an incriminating government document.
The actions of Google and Yahoo are examples of the craven behavior expected of those who put money above any principles. But so far they have at least restricted their abuse to the Chinese people. According to a January 5, 2006 article on the WorldNetDaily.com site, Microsoft has gone a large step beyond that and killed a blog on its MSN Spaces hosting site because it was critical of the Chinese government. Presumably the blog was hosted in the US; if so, Microsoft has begun censoring US-based web publication.
I think these actions indicate a disturbing trend. If they pass without loud public objection, the corporate perpetrators will be emboldened to exercise increasing control over content that passes through their systems. It's a small step from censoring foreign bloggers on behalf of totalitarian governments to censoring American authors who are critical of those same governments. From there, what is to stop them from censoring any content with which they disagree?
The owners of blogs on MSN Spaces need to hear from outraged Americans. There are many other places on the web that host blogs; MSN bloggers who don't like the idea of Microsoft censoring political content should move their blogs to other providers. I suggest that anyone who cares about free speech go down the list of blogs on MSN and suggest this to as many as they can. We need to make it painful for even a juggernaut like Microsoft to collaborate with totalitarians in censoring internet content.
© Dave Neuendorf
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