We Should Fear Global Corporate Tyranny

Geneal Eisenhower warned us all about the military/industrial complex, but the hand-in-glove cooperation between global corporations and oppressive regimes such as that ruling China may pose an equally dangerous threat to individual freedoms.

Freedom nurtured Microsoft and it is now using those gains to prop up tyranny!

Read this story and weep.

Microsoft Shuts Blog's Site After Complaints by Beijing
By DAVID BARBOZA and TOM ZELLER Jr.

BEIJING, Jan. 5 - Microsoft has shut the blog site of a well-known Chinese blogger who uses its MSN online service in China after he discussed a high-profile newspaper strike that broke out here one week ago.

The decision is the latest in a series of measures in which some of America's biggest technology companies have cooperated with the Chinese authorities to censor Web sites and curb dissent or free speech online as they seek access to China's booming Internet marketplace.

Microsoft drew criticism last summer when it was discovered that its blog tool in China was designed to filter words like "democracy" and "human rights" from blog titles. The company said Thursday that it must "comply with global and local laws."

"This is a complex and difficult issue," said Brooke Richardson, a group product manager for MSN in Seattle. "We think it's better to be there with our services than not be there."

The site pulled down was a popular one created by Zhao Jing, a well-known blogger with an online pen name, An Ti. Mr. Zhao, 30, also works as a research assistant in the Beijing bureau of The New York Times.

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