Regulate companies which help censorship?

By Mike Masnick | 9 January 2006

Seth Finkelstein writes:

Do Internet companies need to be regulated to ensure they respect free expression? The recent case of Microsoft closing down a journalist's blog under pressure from the Chinese authorities once again shows that some Internet sector companies do not respect freedom of expression when operating in repressive countries. Reporters Without Borders proposes six concrete ways to make these companies behave ethically. These recommendations are addressed to the US government and US legislators because all the companies named in this document are based in the United States. Nonetheless, they concern all democratic countries and have therefore been sent to European Union officials and to the Secretary General of the OECD as well.

This seems incredibly unlikely to happen. While the situation with US companies helping China with censorship is problematic, it seems quite unlikely that any regulation will come about to stop it (either self-imposed or via government). Instead, it seems likely that solutions will present themselves in other ways. Already people have worked on tools to let those in China get around the censorship - and all of the press following Microsoft's closure of that blog means that anyone with anything important to say in China knows not to use Microsoft. The end result is likely to harm Microsoft more than any set of government regulations.

Crossposted from Techdirt.