MSN closes China Blogger by munificent Blog entry

Blog: Spirit of Money, Financial Fluidity
by munificent

MSN closes China Blogger

So china has pull in government quarters- freedom of speech (this used to be in the bill of rights in America for you younger peoples) is not for China- but how and who went to Gates and made their point "governmentally" about his server's blog space and who could use it....Shame on us...I'm pretty sure Bill woulda just as soon as left it up- But of course he has a big sales number in Chima for OS-if they aren't just making copies of the OS for free! Yes, maybe bill said "quit copying my software, and I'll close down blog space for China dissenters" Just Maybe.

Date: 1/6/2006 9:18:09 AM ( 18 y ) ... viewed 1772 times

Microsoft Closes China Blog

Redmond giant deletes blog on MSN Spaces service kept by New York Times researcher.
January 5, 2006

Microsoft closed down a widely read blog on its MSN Spaces service run by a blogger in China who apparently ran afoul of government censors.

Michael Anti, also known as Zhao Jing, a researcher for The New York Times, wrote the Beijing-based blog, which featured coverage of subjects such as a string of cat murders in Shanghai that attracted the attention of the outside press. The blog was deleted New Year’s Eve.

Former CNN correspondent Rebecca MacKinnon revealed in a posting on her own blog on Tuesday that Microsoft had removed the blog. She pointed out that Mr. Anti had recently covered a walkout called by journalists at the Beijing Daily News after several editors there were fired for writing about recent accounts of police shootings of protestors.

The shutdown of Mr. Anti’s blog may have occurred after pressure not only from Chinese authorities, but also rival bloggers and blogging services. One blogger on a service called Bokee urged Chinese authorities not to be swayed by Microsoft’s PR clout and claimed Mr. Anti had moved the hosting service for his blog hoping to evade authorities.

‘It’s shooting itself in the foot, as well as providing authorities with the tools to repress their own citizens.’

-Danny O’Brien,

EFF

Toby Usnik, a spokesperson for the New York Times Co., said in an email that no charges had been filed against Mr. Anti and that he was not being detained. Mr. Usnik said Mr. Anti “had spoken with my colleagues here in New York and he was fine.”

Microsoft insisted it was merely obeying the law by shutting down the blog.

“Microsoft operates in countries around the world,” said a statement forwarded by Jessica Crozier, an outside spokesperson for Microsoft. “In line with Microsoft practices in global markets, MSN is committed to ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms, and industry practices.

“Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users,” continued the statement. “Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements.”

Shares of Microsoft rose $0.02 to $26.99 at the close of trading.

Censorship Debate

The Redmond software giant has previously deleted words such as “freedom” and “democracy” from its Chinese MSN portal at the request of authorities, according to ZDNet.

Not everybody at Microsoft is pleased with the decision. On his own personal blog, Microsoft Technical Evangelist Robert Scoble wrote, “OK, this one is depressing to me. It’s one thing to pull a list of words out of blogs using an algorithm. It’s another thing to become an agent of a government and censor an entire blogger’s work.”

He later reported that he had tried to track down the source of the deletion at Microsoft but he was encountering concerns about confidentiality, international relations, and the “lives of employees.”

Other Microsoft bloggers defended the censorship, including MSN Spaces Product Unit Manager Michael Connolly, who pointed out that other companies operating in China have needed to adjust their practices to adhere to local laws.

Yahoo was harshly criticized last year for providing the identity of Chinese journalist Shi Tao to the Chinese government, which proceeded to sentence him to a 10-year jail term (see TechSpin: Yahoo: We Had to Comply).

Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google have sometimes needed to comply with government censorship restrictions on their Chinese language search engine results as well.

China has been tightening restrictions on web content and closing down a number of web sites that have not been registered with the government (see China Tightens Web News Grip and Net Censors Active in China).

Business vs. Citizenship

Cyber rights proponents criticized Microsoft’s actions. “It’s within their rights to do this kind of thing, but whether it’s good business or good corporate citizenship is another matter,” said Danny O’Brien, activism coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

He pointed out that Microsoft “depends on and benefits from the free market and the free exchange of ideas. It’s effectively burning its own bridges. If it wants a market where products like Microsoft’s can do well, it needs an open culture and an open society. It’s shooting itself in the foot, as well as providing authorities with the tools to repress their own citizens.”

Microsoft substituted the page for Mr. Anti’s blog with an error message page that simply said, “Space not available. This space is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”

Mr. O’Brien suggests that Microsoft should follow Google’s lead. The search giant frequently receives requests to remove listings from its search engine, sometimes because of claimed violations of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But the company provides search engine users with information about what happened.

Google removes the content, but also sends the take-down notices and cease-and-desist letters to a clearinghouse on a site called ChillingEffects.org, a joint project of the EFF and several universities and law schools, which documents and analyzes their legitimacy.

“It would be a great service for Microsoft to be public about this,” said Mr. O’Brien. “Microsoft can’t make China an open society, but Microsoft can work to make itself an open corporation and be very clear about what it’s doing and why.”