Microsoft Censors Chinese Blogger

wooppp writes "Microsoft has admitted to removing the blog of a Chinese journalist from MSN Spaces. The censored site has been re-hosted elsewhere after a short down-time, but is no longer accessible to the folks in China." From the ZDNet article: "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. Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements..."

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More information

[TripMaster Monkey]

A lot more information on this story can be found at Rebecca MacKinnon's RConversation.

Re:Who's censoring?

[cduffy]

MS isn't cenoring the reporter - CHINA IS.

Incorrect. If you RTFM, it is MSN's employees, rather than China's upstream infrastructure, removing content.

Re:Just getting it out of the way.

[BVis]

This might have been moderated "funny", but we should remember just how much money the US Government has borrowed from China. That national debt is financed by someone, remember?

But we can always raise the national debt ceiling...

Remember Amatuer Action?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Is anyone else reminded of the Amatuer Action BBS prosecution? Back in 1994 a California man and his wife ran a for-pay BBS (yes dial-up) with downloadable porn. A Tennessee postal inspector downloaded some porn from them and when he got it, he shipped THEM some child porn and then charged them with obscenity and had them extradited to Tennessee. If I recall correctly, they were convicted and the man at least served time. All for material that was perfectly legal in California but apparently not in Tennessee.

At the time there was a lot of concern about the net becoming regulated by the laws of the most restrictive state. Funny how that seems to be the case nowadays, except it is the corps doing the 'regulation' and not the governments per se.

(PS, for some reason there is very little record of the whole Amatuer Action BBS fiasco in google's database, very odd for what was such a big deal at the time.)

What if? Why not search it?

[Uukrul]

If it were Google or Apple, it would be "the cost of doing business in China". Since it is Microsoft it is "suppression of independant, free thought."

Censorship at Google on Slashdot.

1st 4+ post: That's just business..(Score:5, Insightful)
2nd 4+ post: No, it isn't (Score:5, Insightful)

So you are worng, there was a discussion similar to this one.

Re:Should MSN obey the law?

[deacon]

I think a lot of you Americans need to revise your prejudices. As far as I can see your attitudes towards other countries, and in this particular case China, is caused by a combination of ignorance and simple jealousy - China is doing better and better, while America is going the opposite way, so they are simply 'evil communists' who persecute pious religious practitioners like Falun Gong

Great Leader, is that you?

Let's look at facts, shall we, not "prejudices"

We begin:

Here are some happy people being run over by tanks.

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=100&hl=en&sa fe=off&q=tiananmen+square&spell=1

Here are reports of hundreds of other happy people being tortured to death.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=falun+gong+tortu re&num=100&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq= &as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occ t=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=off

Here are images of torture victims, many of them old women. The squeamish may want to skip these.

http://images.google.com/images?&num=100&hl=en&btn G=Google+Search&lr=&as_ft=i&as_qdr=all&as_dt=i&as_ rights=&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wi&q=falun%20gong%20tort ure

Isolated incidents from long ago? Oh no, kamerad. Just last month Chinese police shot 30 or 40 villagers who were protesting their poor living conditions.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=chinese+villager s+shot&num=100&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as _oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as _occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=o ff

I am glad you posted something so easy to refute with such overweening disdain for the victims. It's clear why you are such a supporter of the current regime.

Finally, your claim that "you Americans" are jealous of china is a purile red herring meant to stifle discussion.

Hint for you: The only way you can stifle discussion now is if you get Microsoft to do it for you. And the rest of the world is watching.

Re:Should MSN obey the law?

[CelloJake]

I suspect a lot of the American ideas about this come from the time of the cultural revolution, where people were widely persecuted, not only for having the wrong opinions, but also for lots of other things, more or less at random. China has moved on from that - this is a common thing in the world: societies change over time; well, maybe not America, what so I know, but certainly China - how could anyone doubt that? Also, are you absolutely sure that you can get away with having the wrong opinions in America?

From the news today:

A blind activist in China and his family have been placed under house arrest for four months and he was beaten by thugs when he tried to venture out, after exposing forced abortions in his home province on the east coast." More

And some older ones (last few weeks):

Forced labor for writing an article about forced labor camps.

Jailed for organizing a signature campaign against a textbook.

It's obvious that the author of the parent post is either a propogandist for the Chinese government or a deranged lunatic with no grasp of reality (i.e. European). Judging by his well written English, I'll go with the latter.

And to answer the question posed in the excerpt: Yes. I have no fear at all of being persecuted by the U.S. government or local governments for saying anything which does not directly incite violence against another person. However, if I said things like you are saying, I would definitely exepect to be ridiculed by any person who is aware of international events.

I cry BS!

[DigiShaman]

Secondly, what do you actually know about whether the Chinese feel free to speak their mind? I suspect you've never actually been there and spoken to ordinary Chinese. I have, many times, and I can testify that they are not in the least afraid of having an opinion or speaking it in public

Where, when, with what group of people? As someone who's been to Shanghai, I can tell you that my girlfriend and her friends FEAR talking about chinese politics. When you you bring up subject that even remotely come close, they just shake their head and say it's best not to talk about it. When I ask her why at least, she said "I don't want trouble, I want to be a normal citizen without troubles".

Ya...she really likes to speak her mind freely. Sounds like total oppression to me!

Re:And our reporter is afraid of "outspoken" too?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anti's last two articles were about the re-org going on at a Beijing newspaper. You can read the articles here and here. Scroll to the bottom for the English translations.