Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Censoring Blogs on MSN China
jdfox writes "The BBC is reporting that Microsoft is censoring blogs on MSN China. The words 'freedom', 'democracy' and 'demonstration' are reportedly among the words being blocked.
But the article also points out that Microsoft is not the first corporation to censor content when the Chinese government requests it." Slashdot covered this story a few days ago too.
So much for "American" values of freedom and democracy abroad! Microsoft seems to be spreading freedom and democracy in China in much the same way as the Bush administration does in the Middle East.
http://www.stanhopecentre.org/blogs/iraqmedia/
Perhaps MSN could incorporate "official news agencies" throughout the world into a vast repository of MS-Truth - e.g., MS-TASS. Oooh, I sense a "market opportunity" here!
Blech.
Somehow I think this sounds a little bit unlikely. Think about it - how many times have you laughed your head off over stories about sites being blacklisted as 'porn' because they contained supposedly dirty words? I can think of several, like one that talked about wildlife; it contained phrases such as 'a beautiful cock robin' and 'a pair of magnificent tits' (about birds, in case you wonder. Yes, the kind with feathers.)
So, how should this be able to work? It's not as is there is one and only one Chinese character for 'freedom', not to mention 'democracy', and as everybody knows, thre are millions of ways to sneak around that kind of restrictions anyway. I somehow have a hard time imagining the Chinese being as clueless as that.
Also, don't you think it is better to know that you are censored, because the law says so? I mean in America you are being supervised by your own hi-tech version of Gestapo, but you don't know it, and you don't really know by which criteria you are being evaluated. That ought to scare the hell out of you.