Microsoft is now shutting down blogs (written in Chinese) on its Microsoft Network (MSN) blogging service that are critical of the Chinese government. This isn't the first time that Microsoft's compliance to China's policies has been in the news. If this is the first time you've heard of this, here's a quick rundown: in the past few years, the complicity of Microsoft and other US companies like Google, Yahoo!, and Cisco with the Chinese Communist Party in helping them to construct the "Great Firewall of China" has made possible the censorship of Internet sites and searches related to 'freedom', 'human rights', or 'democracy' within China.
What's worrying about this latest incident is that the censorship is 'global' and not limited to within China. The sites MSN now censors are being taken down from their servers and not merely firewalled by the Chinese government. For example, had I originally created 'An Unnamed Syposium' on MSN and one of us published the words "Tibetian Independence" or "Falun Dong", our blog would shortly thereafter be deleted off MSN's server because of their compliance to China's wishes; (this is also assuming we knew and were blogging in Chinese).
It's not illegal for Microsoft or any other private company to censor a blog that they operate; however this censorship, though limited to Chinese blogs, still seems to reek of evilness... or maybe it doesn't? Do you believe that Microsoft and other American companies' complicity in China's political censorship is wrong?
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4 comments:
I would like to say yes, but can't for a few reasons.
1) It's not Microsoft's legal responsibility to protect free speech on its own servers, so others are more appropriately held responsible for the evil of censorship; e.g. Microsoft's customers for supporting their immoral practices or the inaction of the US government in this situation.
2) I don't see Gates and Co. as having much of a choice. If they were to place moral concerns for the well-being of foreign countries ahead of running their business, it seems a likely consequence that Microsoft would lose more ground to Google and Yahoo!. And if not complying with China severely hampered Microsoft's inability to compete with Google or Yahoo!, I think they would be replaced by others that would manage Microsoft with a colder-hearted mentality.
3) I believe that I'm in small part responsible for Microsoft's evilness as I'm unwilling to stop using Microsoft products. So, I can't argue that Microsoft is evil without being somewhat hypocritical.
Do you have to go as far as boycotting Microsoft in order to both say they're evil and not be a hypocrite?
A boycott is only one of many ways to encourage change.
My first take is Yes it seems wrong to censor on a global scale, if you really believe in freedom of speech. China's jurisdiction does extend to her borders, and it is possible that it ought to extend to some portion of the internet, but certainly not the whole thing.
So with that said, Microsoft's compliance seems like the wrong thing.
However, the way to liberating China may be through business, as even top Communist Party members must admit to the benefits of freedom, at least economic freedom. So perhaps in a way, by compliance with Chinese censorhip today, Microsoft and other companies are ensuring deeper penetration and interdependency in the Chinese economy that will ultimately lead to freedoms being granted.
Am I going way out on a limb in saying this?
I agree with what you said. Economic freedom seems to lead to political freedom.
As China's rapid economic development in China continues, its citizen's average wealth and education increases. This will result in an increase in the socio-political power of the different interest groups in China's society that seek to challenge the Communist Party.
I think even the Communist Party's hard-liners view democratization as an inevitability. What China's leaders face is the challenge of how to make the transition to democracy and increased political freedoms smooth and peaceful.
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Saying 'Microsoft is evil... but I use Windows, MSOffice, everyday' doesn't seem to carry much force or meaning; to me, my argument seems to lack substance b/c of hypocrisy.
it's not hypocritical... if you PIRATED the software!
or is it? ha
Yes, perhaps the best way to support a coporation is to actually buy its products or services. With Microsoft it's tricky though because so much of their software is the norm and it's difficult to see the connection between using Excel and supporting censorship (whereas riding a bus run by racists is a little more obvious).
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