On January 8, I published an article on this blog called “The future is here…” about how major US technology companies have been helping the Chinese government censor free speech and persecute Chinese journalists.
Looks like things are starting to change…
What just a few weeks ago was taking place in dark alleys is now on center stage and under a spotlight.
Since late January, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times have all run major stories about the questionable practices of companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google when it comes to cooperating with repressive regimes.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that currently words like “freedom” and “democracy” are censored in China and web sites with these words on them are blocked by the Chinese government. Even worse, it appears that in at least one case, one company, Yahoo, actually aided the Chinese government in jailing one of its critics by making his private e-mails available to investigators.
What a disgrace. Is this the best and highest use of the Internet? I don’t think so. And it’s a bad idea to let these precedents stand.
Abuse of the Internet and Internet users by the Chinese government (and, in all fairness, they’re not the only government involved) has been going on for a long time. The difference is that today the Internet community is much more aware of what’s happening. Clearly the big tech corps have started to feel the displeasure of public opinion. Good! Now’s the time to turn up the heat.
Meanwhile, valentines for some of the heroes who in the true spirit of the Internet are creating workarounds so Chinese Internet users can evade the censors.
Bill Xia
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_08/b3972061.htm
Bennett Haselton
http://www.peacefire.org/circumventor/simple-circumventor-instructions.html
Roger Dingledine
http://tor.freehaven.net
The Wall Street Journal published a detailed account of this ‘hacktivist’ movement on the front page of their February 13, 2006 issue. Valentines to the Wall Street Journal too.
Tomorrow representatives from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft will be in front of Congress answering questions about why they’re using their power in the Internet marketplace to help repressive governments carry out their dirty work.
Let’s watch and ask our own questions.
– Ken McCarthy
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