It seems some folks are less that happy with the help being given by the computer company Microsoft and the big search engines in stilfling free speech.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5194238.stmUK users of Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google are being urged by Amnesty International to email the companies to change the way they operate in China.
The firms have aided or colluded with internet censorship in the country, the human rights watchdog says.
It is asking the internet giants to reveal which words they have banned from blogs in China or filtered out of web searches.
The technology firms say they are helping develop more freedom in China.
But Amnesty says they are helping to reinforce censorship by the Chinese government.
"Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google claim they are obeying local laws when in fact they are succumbing to political pressure," Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK Director, said.
This is a bit of a problematic issue for them really as they are asking us all to trust them to enforce a censorship system they say will lead to a great future for open speech, I dont know about your thinking folks, but if they do their jobs correctly then free speech is dead in the water.
To a Chinese citizen,western companies aiding censorship are seen as handing the Chinese goverment a seal of approval from outside foreign goverments that allow their nationals and organisations to take part in it.
I rather more suspect a nice deal that benefits the search engine vendors market share is the prime mover in cosying up to the Chinese goverment, after all we are talking about the biggest population in the world and a rapidly expanding market place for global entities.
