Tom Zeller on China Still Winning Against The Web

The hue and cry about Microsoft’s acquiesence to China’s censorship of blogs will not die down, and Tom Zeller’s piece in the Sunday NYTimes attempts to present a balanced view, but ultimately, that falls apart:

[from China, Still Winning Against the Web - New York Times by Tom Zeller]

The company said it was simply facing reality. “Microsoft does business in many countries around the world,” said Brooke Richardson, a group product manager for its MSN division, in an e-mailed statement. “While different countries have different standards, Microsoft and other multinational companies have to ensure that our products and services comply with local laws, norms and industry practices.”  Microsoft was only the latest technology company to be criticized for cooperating with the Chinese government. Yahoo, Cisco and Google have all been accused of helping to maintain what the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a Congressional investigatory body, has called “the most sophisticated Internet control system in the world.” 

The reality is that these companies are more interested in profits and future competitiveness than they are in human rights.

In the spirit of Martin Luther King Day, we should use non-violent protest — such as withholding access to tools like MSN Spaces — so that China moves toward a better human rights stance. If the mega companies are not willing to use their leverage to do so, we should protest until they do. So I continue to call for a boycott of Microsoft until they stop doing the work of the censors.