Korean Job Discussion Forums

[igotthisguitar]

Microsoft Helps China Censor Bloggers
By Jonathan Watts in Beijing
The Guardian - UK
6-15-5

Civil liberties groups have condemned an arrangement between Microsoft and Chinese authorities to censor the internet.

The American company is helping censors remove "freedom" and "democracy" from the net in China with a software package that prevents bloggers from using these and other politically sensitive words on their websites.

The restrictions, which also include an automated denial of "human rights", are built into MSN Spaces, a blog service launched in China last month by Shanghai MSN Network Communications Technology, a venture in which Microsoft holds a 50% stake.

Users who try to include such terms in subject lines are warned: "This topic contains forbidden words. Please delete them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1506601,00.html

[Pangit]

Whatever inroads capitalism can make into China will surely serve to chip away at the wall. Microsoft will act more like a jackhammer, I think. It only took a little bit for the iron curtain to come down.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

As I am actually in China, I can attest as to how absurd the censorship is.

- BBC
- Geocities
- Blog sites
- Sometimes CNN
- Google
- Yahoo!
- MSN
- All search engines

The list is lengthy...

[guangho]

[Ya-ta Boy]

From what I read the other day, those nasty words can't be used in headings but no one checks the actual body of a post so you can say pretty much what you want.

As I see it, Microsoft doesn't have much choice in the matter if they want to do business in China.

Last week or so, Mith posted something saying China has 800,000 new internet users each year (I think that is what it said). Microsoft would be foolish to close itself off from what is going to be the biggest market in the world soon. Especially if the 'censorship' is only of headings of posts and not the content.

I find it quite easy to sit back in comfort and be holier-than-thou when I'm not involved in the real life situation.

[igotthisguitar]

[Bulsajo]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/8c70623e-e132-11d9-a3fb-00000e2511c8.html

Hackers deface Beijing��s security website

Chinese hackers have defaced the website of a police-run security company that is leading a new effort to strengthen the Communist government's control over the internet.

The action by unknown hackers against the website of the Beijing General Security Service Co comes amid its drive to recruit a corps of 4,000 "internet security guards" to monitor the online activities of people in the Chinese capital.

"A security company that cannot even protect its own website can hardly talk about security," the hackers wrote in a notice that appeared on the site's news section last week....

[Ya-ta Boy]