Foreign Internet companies doing business in China
20 March 2008, 05:16PM
Experts believe China, which has more Internet users than any other country, has the most extensive, technologically sophisticated and broad-reaching Internet filtering system in the world.
And the major overseas Internet companies operating in China – Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google - have, in one way or another, facilitated or colluded with the Government’s censorship practices.
Yahoo! has given authorities confidential information about its users; Microsoft admitted shutting down a blog because of a Government request; and Google has launched a censored Chinese version of its international search engine.
Policies ignored
All three companies have shown a disregard for some of their own policies. They made promises to themselves, their employees, their customers and their investors; it is questionable as to whether they are upholding these promises in China’s environment of huge profits and Government requests.
In defending their actions in China; Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google say they’re obliged to comply with local law. And they argue although it’s not an ideal situation, their presence in China has a positive influence. They say even if they weren’t operating in China there would still be censorship, and that censored information is better than no information.
Sanctioning censorship
But China has had the Internet for more than a decade, which means these companies can no longer be considered to be helping bring a new technology to China. Instead, they are trying to gain an increasing share of a rapidly growing market, with the knowledge that it will expand without or without them.
Effectively their actions are facilitating and sanctioning censorship rather than challenging it.
Read more about Yahoo!, the first major foreign Internet company to enter the Chinese market, Microsoft, which has the best access to the upper echelons of the Chinese Government, and Google, which set up the Chinese version of its search engine relatively recently.
At the moment these overseas Internet companies are part of the problem – we want them to act as a force for good and become part of the solution in China. Want to do something right now.
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