Techtree.com India > News > Internet > Microsoft Censors Chinese Blogger — This is not going to benefit Microsoft’s reputation. To say the least.

Microsoft Corp’s decision to censor a Chinese blogger – Zhoa Jing on its MSN site, and the company’s subsequent refusal to explain its actions has apparently sent human rights advocates into a tizzy…

Microsoft on its part says that the MSN Space has been blocked, to help ensure compliance with local Chinese laws. What it does not say is what laws have been broken, to warrant removal of Jing’s entries from the MSN server.

The company does say that Jing used an msn.com URL instead of msn.com.cn, which is reserved for Chinese servers run by Microsoft together with a Chinese partner.

According to Daniel Simons, legal officer, free expression advocacy group, it appears that Microsoft is permitting Chinese authorities to exert control over content stored outside of China.



  1. I guess an Open Source blog on MSN is out of the question.

  2. name says:

    Don’t be fooled! ANY corp. trying to make a few million bucks would instantly kowtow to the reigning authority… Google, Yahoo, Apple, MS… THey’re all the same. They exist to make money by any means necessary. Business / Government collusion was what WWII was all about. Facisim V. Freedom. I wonder who won?
    Quote Mussolini..
    “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

  3. I like this telling of the story better:

  4. CB says:

    Hey “name”, don’t forget the illuminati, council on foreign relations and the trilateral commission. Go back to hide under your bed.

  5. I think CB has read some conspiracy books too, you forgot Skull & Bones there, our presidents membership:)

    Kidding aside, partially, I don’t think Name is too far off the mark — his statement may have come off radical, but taking it for what it’s worth, MS sure delves deep into corporatism here. I won’t make assumptions that I can connect it to years of Masonry, but oppression of speech from an American Corporation… well, doesn’t make it very American.

    Looks like I have another reason to continue my Microsoft boycott all these years.

  6. Smith says:

    Virtually every international corporation is looking to break into China. The allure of a billion potential customers has more than one CEO salivating. Given the complete disregard corporations have for their own employees, it is no surprise that MicroSoft would throw a blogger to the wolves if that is what it takes to break into China.

    And every year since 1980, our president has signed a waiver whereby China is granted Most Favored-Nation trading status in spite of its disregard for human rights.

    Money talks, people are mute.

  7. joshua says:

    I couldn’t find a place to leave this comment….but this looked promising.
    I just read your yahoo column on Google and the China deal. I had just finished reading a column by Sabastian Mallaby in the Washington post about the Google/China thing. It is the first time that I have been able to see the *other* parts of the deal. What Google is saying actually makes better sense than just not going into China or going in and being blocked by Cisco systems.
    The point being that Google is just going in as a search engine, NOT as Yahoo(new chinese police) or Microsoft(Quislings) or Cisco Systems(great firewall builders).
    Anyway, I think the article by Mallaby should be read.


0

Bad Behavior has blocked 5734 access attempts in the last 7 days.