Rebecca MacKinnon and Robert Scoble on MSN Spaces Chinese Censorship. Get Real: Stowe Boyd's Soapbox

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January 03, 2006

Rebecca MacKinnon and Robert Scoble on MSN Spaces Chinese Censorship

Posted by Stowe Boyd

Rebecca reports on some very, very horrible news. Apparently, MSN Spaces -- not the Chinese government mind you -- is censoring Chinese language MSN-hosted blogs worldwide. Even those hosted in the US with US authors. They have made users' Spaces 'not available', such as those written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti, one of the most outspoken Chinese bloggers. But Rebecca goes on to describe how she set up a MSN hosted blog, and was able to have that blog censored and then made 'not available' simply by using various inflammatory terms like "Falun Gong" and "Tiananmen massacre." Apparently, a competitor of MSN Spaces called Bokee has been clamoring to have Michael Anti taken down, because he formerly blogged there, and his leaving has led to loss of significant readership.

[RConversation: Microsoft takes down Chinese blogger]
Now, It is VERY important to note that the inaccessible blog was moved or removed at the server level and that the blog remains inaccessible from the United States as well as from China. This means that the action was taken NOT by Chinese authorities responsible for filtering and censoring the internet for Chinese viewers, but by MSN staff at the level of the MSN servers.

I did similar tests with five other Chinese blog-hosting services. They all work differently when it comes to censoring user content, but they all engage in some form of filtering or censorship of user content. Interestingly, I found that Bokee had no mechanism preventing me from posting anything in the titles or text bodies of the posts. But eventually, blogs with politically sensitive words in them (like “Falun Gong,” “Tiananmen massacre” and “Tibet independence”) were taken down in what appeared to be a human screening process, perhaps assisted by some kind of keyword search or alert system. Other blog hosting services use a combination of automated systems and human procedures similar to MSN’s, although MSN was definitely #1 when it came to full takedown response time. At least one of the services allows you to post anything, but replaces politically sensitive words with “****” when they appear. I have decided not to go into a detailed naming of names and specifics about who censors more strictly and who censors more loosely than whom, since that will only result in some people getting in trouble – or as the Bokee editorial against MSN shows, some blog-hosting companies trying to curry favor with the authorities may try to sic the goons on those who take a lighter-handed approach to, er, user content management…

It's a terrible thing to imagine: Microsoft agreeing to censor Chinese language blogs, globally, in exchange for some unknown quid pro quo with the Chinese government. This must not be allowed. If there was ever a reason to boycott Microsoft (I mean, aside from the products themselves), this is it.

Robert Scoble is royally pissed, and is using his considerable juice to find out what is going on. But this might be the time when Robert's public persona might get crushed by the backroom deal worth billions for Microsoft. Robert says he knows the consequences of stating that Microsoft has become "the agent of a government", but when he lists the consequences he omits getting dooced.

Robert is not likely to call for a boycott of Microsoft, but I am the perfect one to do it. Boycott Microsoft!

tags: boycott+microsoft, robert+scoble, rebecca+mackinnon, MSN+spaces, chinese+censorship, human+rights, blogging

Comments (17) + TrackBacks (3) | Category: Politics

COMMENTS

1. Humpty Dumpty on January 8, 2006 11:40 PM writes...

The guys who will boycott Microsoft because of this have done so long ago. The rest don't care. If according to you, Microsoft should stop doing business in China because of how "you" feel, you need to get a life.

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January 03, 2006

Rebecca MacKinnon and Robert Scoble on MSN Spaces Chinese Censorship

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