MSN in China Options

[John]

PC Pro: News: MSN gets tangled up with freedom and democracy in China

"Microsoft China has declined to comment on reports that it has censored MSN content to appease the Beijing government.

According to the AFP news agency, users have been prevented from using the terms 'democracy', 'freedom' and 'human rights' on the new Chinese version of Microsoft's Internet portal. Other words and phrases that have been blocked include 'demonstration' and 'Taiwan independence'.

Anyone attempting to use these expressions in a blog is warned that they are not permitted and asked to choose an alternative. Profanities and pornography are also censored.

The Chinese regime has always maintained strict controls over the Internet amid fears that it could be used to organise the kind of opposition that resulted in the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.

Despite its refusal to countenance democratic reform and poor human rights record, China has had little difficulty attracting major IT firms to its huge potential market and vast reserves of cheap labour."

I don't know what all the hullabaloo is about.
Microsoft are no different to Murdoch's News LTD which won satellite rights in China and more than bent over to comply with China's rules on content.
Yes, the man that supports Bush's aim to democratize the whole world and via Fox etc, screams at anyone who doesn't support Bush yet quietly does business with a country that wont allow the word Democracy to be used ....

Money talks far louder than cliches and ideals.

[John]

BTW, I'm with Bray on the whole issue.