Search Engines Censured for Censorship.

Authors:
Einhorn, Bruce

Source:
Business Week Online; 8/11/2006, p9-9, 1p


"All year, human-rights and free-speech advocates have been chastising big U.S. Internet companies for helping to censor the Internet in China. Critics of Beijing's policies have focused on Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), and Microsoft (MSFT), all of whose search engines operate in China under requirements to filter results from many Web sites related to such things as independence movements in Taiwan and Tibet, democracy advocates, and the Falun Gong religious movement." (para 2)

"Mary Osako, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said, "We believe our presence in a country that restricts freedom of expression significantly benefits a country's citizens through access to services and information. We believe we can make more of a difference by having even a limited presence and growing our influence, than we can by not operating in a particular country at all." (para 7)

"What should come next? Even a harsh Beijing critic like MacKinnon agrees that a complete withdrawal from the Chinese market is not a good idea. "It probably is better to engage," she says. Instead of pulling out of China, the big U.S. search engines should provide more information to their Chinese users about the type of censorship that they are enforcing, she says. "The next step is to get more specific," says MacKinnon. For instance, in France and Germany, search engines have to follow laws prohibiting access to neo-Nazi and other hate sites, and so companies censor searches and inform their users of the reason for the censorship. Right now that sort of disclosure doesn't happen in China." (para 17)


Good site. Informative. Business Week Online.