Both the government of China and Microsoft are monopolies. Neither likes concepts like "freedom" or "democracy" because customers (citizens) then have a choice -- and choice kills monopolies. Yet, both would become better organizations from having to compete.
Microsoft is in the news for word-banning in its China-based blogging business, but Yahoo and Google similarly censor search results. Reporters without Borders lists some of the banned words:
freedom
democracy
Dalai Lama
Falungong
4 June
China + corruption
human rights
During a recent episode of The Simpsons, the family visits China. The large cartoon sign on Tiananmen Square reads, "On this place in 1989, nothing happened."
In the same way, history doesn't happen for Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google. Getting jailed or being killed for promoting democracy or freedom of faith does not happen in China. The soothing sound of dollar bills piling up in bank accounts drowns out the irritating sound of the nagging conscience.
Google states its corporate mission is to do no evil. Care to define evil?
Update
Microsoft says it is only following the law of the land in which it conducts business. Echos of "I was only following orders." Over on slash.dot, is the following note:
"Rebecca MacKinnon at Global Voices Online has set up a test of Microsoft's censored blogs on MSN China with screenshots. It seems that MSN rejected titling a new blog 'I love freedom of speech, human rights, and democracy' (in Chinese) because 'The title must not contain prohibited language, such as profanity.'"
On her site, she reports: "This censorship can be circumvented with Bennet Haselton’s Freedom Hack Instructions. I played around with the freedom & democracy blog I created through the hacking instructions and was able to create posts with politically sensitive headlines like 'don’t forget June4th 1989' and 'Falungong' without trouble."
Comments