Yahoo News: U.S. firms help China censor freedom, democracy - How "Free" is "Free" Enterprise?

Yahoo! News U.S. firms help China censor freedom, democracy - How "Free" is "Free" Enterprise?

" Part of the Internet's magic is the freedom it bestows to travel as far as your mind can take you. But not if you're in China, where the totalitarian government is leery of the Internet and hostile to the merest mention of such ideas as freedom. No surprise there. What is a shock is that several huge U.S. companies are helping China muzzle free expression.

Software giant Microsoft has agreed to block certain words - democracy, freedom and human rights among them - by users on parts of its new Chinese Internet portal. According to news reports, the words trigger this message: "This item should not contain forbidden speech, such as profanity.

Freedom, profane? What's actually profane is a company that built its fortune on the freedom provided by the American system helping a repressive regime censor such ideas. Sadder still is that Microsoft has company among other U.S. tech concerns that should know better. The importance of this should not be underestimated. The Internet and capitalism were supposed to jump-start democracy in former communist regimes. These actions suggest a different future: One in which corporations and dictators share benefits in suppressing democratic communications."