Battleangel

Weblog entries on some parts of Microsoft’s MSN site in China using words such as “freedom”, “democracy” and “demonstration” are being blocked.

Chinese bloggers already face strict controls and must register their online journal with Chinese authorities.

Microsoft said the company abided by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates.

Also being restricted on the free parts of the site are journal entries that mention “human rights” and “Taiwan independence”.

Those using these banned words or writing entries that are pornographic or contain sensitive information get a pop-up warning that reads: “This message contains a banned expression, please delete this expression.”

Source: BBC

Two things to note here:

First, this is another dark side of corporations. When they aren’t making money, it’s not worth doing. It’s just not in their business model to try and spread free online expression in China. Nor should it be. I’m not asking Microsoft to take on some crusade here. That is not what corporations do. And it should be a lesson for those that are always jumping the bandwagon of privatization. Ardent followers of capitalism that seem to think that a free market can fix everything. Well, here is one example of something it can’t fix. Microsoft doesn’t have the motive or the resources to stand up to what seems to be the right thing here. Just like what happened to Google in China. Or indeed Google and Scientology, or when upholding the DMCA in general. One could argue that the DMCA is a form of censorship, although from corporations themselves. Like with Google, Microsoft wont be very chivalrous when it comes to the bottom line – profit. They don’t want to be locked out of China, lose market shares or even be sued.

Having said that, and this is consideration number two, the Star Trek reference “Prime Directive” comes to mind. Microsoft’s defense, i.e. that they just follow the law, not just in China but everywhere, is a fair one. Just like we in Sweden expect Microsoft to abide by our strict labour laws that I am sure US based Microsoft finds smothering and whatever. One shouldn’t be so quick to judge even if we obviously all have a sense of where we’d like to go with this.