microsoft bans "democracy" from their websites in china

this is a repost from nettime, but i thought some people here would be
interested that aren't on nt.

> http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?
> feed=FT&Date 050610&IDH84671
>
> June 10, 2005 11:42 PM ET
> Microsoft bans 'democracy' for China web users
> Financial Times
>
> Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words
> "democracy" and
> "freedom" from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid
> offending
> Beijing's political censors.
>
> Users of the joint-venture portal, formally launched last month, have
> been blocked
> from using a range of potentially sensitive words to label personal
> websites they
> create using its free online blog service, MSN Spaces.
>
> Attempts to input words in Chinese such as "democracy" prompted an
> error message
> from the site: "This item contains forbidden speech. Please delete the
> forbidden
> speech from this item." Other phrases banned included the Chinese for
> "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence".
>
> It was possible to enter such words within blogs created using MSN
> Spaces, but the
> move to block them from the more visible section of the site
> highlights the
> willingness of some foreign internet companies to tailor their
> services to avoid
> upseting China's Communist government.
>
> Beijing has long sought to limit political debate on the internet and
> is in the
> throes of a campaign to force anybody who operates a website to
> register with the
> central government.
>
> MSN this year became the first big international internet service to
> win a licence
> to offer value-added telecoms services in China, a coup that was
> possible in part
> because of its decision to team up in a joint venture with Shanghai
> Alliance
> Investment (Sail). Sail is an investment arm of the Shanghai city
> government.
> Microsoft has also been careful to ensure that news and other content
> offered
> through the Chinese MSN portal are provided by local partners who can
> work within
> the informal and shifting boundaries set by China's unseen army of
> internet
> censors.
>
> The MSN Spaces service, however, is directly operated by the joint
> venture,
> Shanghai MSN Network Communications Technology, in which Microsoft
> holds a 50 per
> cent stake.
>
> MSN on Friday declined to comment directly on the ban on sensitive
> words, but its
> China joint venture said users of MSN Spaces were required to accept
> the service's
> code of conduct. "MSN abides by the laws and regulations of each
> country in which
> it operates," the joint venture said. The MSN Spaces code of conduct
> forbids the
> posting of content that "violates any local and national laws".
>
> But while China's ruling Communist Party deals harshly with political
> dissenters,
> there is no Chinese law that bars the mere use of words such as
> democracy.