Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Tech Firms Aid China's censors

A Fortune article by Marc Gunther, via CNN/Money, reports that:

Until recently, technology companies like Cisco, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google saw nothing but opportunity in China. Now they are experiencing headaches as well -- not because business is bad, but because their ethics are being questioned.

U.S.-China relations will take center stage this weekend when President Bush visits Beijing. With about 100 million Internet users, second only to the U.S., China is a big, high-growth market for technology. The trouble is, the Chinese government goes to extraordinary lengths to restrict what its people publish and read on the Internet -- and the authorities are getting help from the U.S. technology giants.

As a result, U.S. firms have come under fire from human rights groups, shareholder activists and members of Congress. Julian Pain of Reporters without Borders, an advocacy group, calls it "unethical" for technology companies to "help the world's most repressive regimes, especially China, carry out online censorship and surveillance."

posted by Fergie @ 11/18/2005 07:17:00 AM