This “China thing” is getting big. Take a look at Microsoft’s latest announcement, stating it has completely changed its policy on blogging.
In a speech to government officials and leaders in Portugal, MS senior vice-president, Brad Smith, said that blogs hosted on MSN Spaces would not be removed if they broke local law. Instead, Microsoft says it will restrict access from the territory in question. While Microsoft’s new initiatives apply globally, the company directed its focus at rising tension in Chinese Web censorship.
Smith announced four initiatives for Microsoft going forward:
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With this move, Microsoft obviously wants to safe face in the eyes of the public, while at the same time abiding by foreign laws.
All tech companies are now trying to muscle in on the country because the market is so large and lucrative. However, they also have to be very careful about they way they deal with the People’s Republic because the government is enforcing strict laws of censorship.
When it comes to searching the ‘Net, it’s a juggling act, as the West erupts every time it hears news of the Big Search Engine Boys censoring content.
With its new blogging stance, Microsoft is trying to rebuild public support after it was lashed for removing a blog of a New York Times researcher based out of China last month. Then, the Chinese government wanted the news of a local newspaper strike withheld. Microsoft obeyed. The public went crazy.
But in an interesting twist, Microsoft is now going further than any other tech company in China. This includes transparency of operation and telling users why they are running up against barriers when they search, and making the Chinese government do the bulk of the tedious work.
For example, the Chinese government doesn’t give search engine companies a list of sites it doesn’t want civilians to see. Instead, companies have to guess on content the government supports based on a list of criteria. If the company wants to continue doing business in China, they must filter offensive content and government agencies will monitor the Web to ensure compliance.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has told the Chinese government that it “will remove access to blog content only when it receives a legally binding notice from the government indicating that the material violates local laws, or if the content violates MSN’s terms of use.”
This means the Chinese government agencies have to do all the work in finding the sites, and send MS a separate letter for each instance it finds. It’s a big step for freedom of speech, as Chinese censors will have to work very fast in order to censor content that grows exponentially on the Internet.
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