It looks like Microsoft is stepping back from being a willing and over-zealous agent of the Chinese government’s efforts to squelch dissent, and is merely going to agree to governmental requests to accord with local laws:
[from Microsoft Amends Its Policy for Shutting Down Blogs - New York Times by Tom Zeller]
Among the changes outlined by the company’s general counsel, Bradford L. Smith, at its Government Leaders Forum in Lisbon yesterday were a commitment to block content — typically blog or personal Web site content — on its MSN Spaces service only when served with “legally binding notice from the government indicating that the material violates local laws, or if the content violates MSN’s terms of use.” The company is also developing technology that would block content within the country making the request, while preserving the ability of the rest of the world to view it. Microsoft also said it would develop a system of “transparent user notification,” so that users whose blogs have been shut by government order will be notified by message when they try to access their sites, rather than face an inexplicably dead link.The new policies would not have prevented the censoring of the Chinese blogger, Zhao Jing
As a general rule, companies have to agree to government requests within national borders, so, fine. The problem was that MSN was preemptively censoring chinese language bloggers anywhere in the world, as Rebecca MacKinnon had demonstrated when this mess first came to light.
And, of course, powerful companies like Microsoft and Google should be actively promoting human rights whenever possible, and dragging their heels when dealing with repressive regimes like China. A part of the furor regarding the MSN Spaces mess, and the recent flap over Google search censorship, has been how meekly the companies seemed to have acted in the face of censorship pressure.
It’s a global village, and we all have to stand up against the bullies in the town square, or it won’t be safe for any of us.
