Microsoft Corp's decision to play ball with the Chinese government by shutting down a dissident blog has evoked worldwide condemnation and criticism.
Zhao Jing, whose online pen name was Michael Anti, had his site on Microsoft's China-based MSN Spaces hosting service deleted on December 30 after he wrote about the government's removal of top editors at the Beijing News newspaper. His blog also covered the strike by journalists at the paper in protest at the dismissals. Microsoft deleted his website without prior notice after receiving a request from Chinese authorities. Fifteen of the 32 journalists in prison in China in 2005 wrote for the Internet.
"China's growing attempt to stifle the free flow of news and opinion by making Internet companies complicit in their repressive policies is deeply disturbing ," Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "But for an Internet company to argue that it must honour contractual agreements when operating in China does not absolve it of its responsibility to uphold the ideal behind the Internet � the free and open exchange of information."
The blogger, who is also a researcher at the Beijing office of the New York Times, received no warning from Microsoft before his site was deleted, he told the Times. "This action by Microsoft infringed upon my freedom of speech," said Zhao. "They even deleted my blog and gave me no chance to back up my files without any warning."
A Microsoft spokesperson said the company had been told by the Chinese authorities that the blog had violated local laws and they requested its removal. "While this is a complex and difficult issue, we remain convinced it is better for Microsoft and other multinational companies to be in these markets with our services and communications tools, as opposed to not being there," the spokesperson told CPJ.
Microsoft's China-based webloghosting service shut down the blog at the Chinese government's request, said Brooke Richardson, group product manager with Microsoft's MSN online division at company headquarters in Redmond, Washington. "When we operate in markets around the world, we have to ensure that our service complies with global laws as well as local laws and norms," Richardson said. He said the blog was shut down December 30/31 for violating Microsoft's code of conduct, which states that users must obey the laws of the country in which they are based.
The Chinese government has implemented a broad and sophisticated system of monitoring and censoring the Internet, where reporters and others often post news banned from publication or broadcast inside China. Authorities have successfully solicited the help of many multi-national information and technology companies to aid their efforts. Microsoft has previously come under fire for agreeing to block the use of words like "democracy" and "human rights" on MSN Spaces.
Meanwhile, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has issued six concrete proposals aimed at ensuring that Internet-sector companies respect free expression when operating in repressive countries. RSF has called on on bloggers and Internet users to sign an online petition in support of this initiative.
The recommendations are addressed to the US government and US legislators because all the companies named in this document are based in the United States. Nonetheless, they concern all democratic countries and have therefore been sent to European Union officials and to the Secretary General of the OECD as well, RSF said on its website.
Microsoft had already faced intense criticism after it was revealed last year that its Chinese blogging service restricted the entry of sensitive terms such as "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence". The MSN Spaces operation, a Microsoft joint venture with state-owned Shanghai Alliance Entertainment, is the top blog hosting service in China.
The Microsoft decision has generated a groundswell of criticism of the Redmond corporation on the Internet – including from former CNN Beijing bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon on rconversation.blog.com. "The behaviour of companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and others – and their eager willingness to comply with Chinese government demands – shows a fundamental lack of respect for users and our fundamental human rights," MacKinnon said on her blog. "Microsoft, Yahoo and others are helping to institutionalise and legitimise the integration of censorship into the global IT business model."
Robert Scoble, well-known Microsoft blogger, initially disagreed with Microsoft's decision: "Guys over at MSN: sorry, I don't agree with your being used as a state-run thug." However, he has since backtracked from his original post and appears more understanding of Microsoft's decision
The Los Angeles Times said that US companies have an obligation, as leaders in a global medium defined by open information, to protect basic rights of individuals to express themselves without censorship – within reason. "Within reason" are the key words here. It is within reason for China to demand that US companies comply with Chinese laws and regulations. "What is not within reason is a Chinese demand for compliance with unwritten whims," it said.
Last year, Yahoo provided Chinese authorities account holder information used to imprison journalist Shi Tao, whom CPJ honoured with its 2005 International Press Freedom Award. Shi, formerly an editor at Dangdai Shang Bao daily newspaper, was sentenced to ten years in prison in April 2004 for trafficking in state secrets after he used his Yahoo account to email notes from propaganda department instructions to his newspaper. Yahoo said it was complying with local law.
RSF has listed a number of areas of concern on its website:
- Since 2002, Yahoo! has agreed to censor the results of the Chinese version of its search engine in accordance with a blacklist provide by the Chinese government. RSF also recently proved that Yahoo! helped the Chinese police identify and then convict a journalist who was criticising human rights abuses in China. The email servers of Yahoo!'s Chinese division are located inside China.
- Microsoft censors the Chinese version of its MSN Spaces blog tool. You cannot enter search strings such as "democracy" or "human rights in China" or "capitalism" as they are automatically rejected by the system. Microsoft also closed down a Chinese journalist's blog following pressure from the government in Beijing. This blog was hosted on servers located in the United States.
- All sources of news and information that are censored in China have been withdrawn by Google from the Chinese version of its news search engine, Google News.
- Secure Computing has sold Tunisia technology that allows it to censor independent news and information websites such as the RSF one.
- Fortinet has sold the same kind of software to Burma.
- Cisco Systems has marketed equipment specifically designed to make it easier for the Chinese police to carry out surveillance of electronic communications. Cisco is also suspected of giving Chinese engineers training in how to use its products to censor the Internet.
