All About Content

European Commission Vice President Margot Wallström has accused Microsoft, Yahoo and Google of having flexible morals when it comes to dealing with China.

Writing in her blog, Wallström criticised the search engines for their complicity in helping China silence its domestic critics: “Words like ethics and corporate social responsibility seems to be deleted from their corporate code of conducts – or they have flexible ethical standards depending on where they operate…”

Wallström says she was “very disappointed to learn that Microsoft has agreed to block Chinese blog entries that use words like ‘democracy’, ‘freedom’, ‘human rights’ and ‘demonstration.’ …Yahoo has even gone further. They collaborated with the Chinese government and gave up the name of a writer who sent an e-mail that commented on a party decision. Based on this information, the man received a ten-year prison sentence.”