Microsoft used to be evil because they dominated the world with crappy software. I never had much of a problem with this, personally. But now, they are censoring blogs on behalf of the Chinese government , putting them in a whole new category of world-class evil.
Basically, this Chinese guy named Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti, had a blog on MSN space that the communist dictators in China didn’t like. MSN kowtowed to the autocrats and took it down.
Quoting the Information Week article (via boingboing.net :
“Microsoft said in a statement that the decision to unplug Zhao was inline with its practice of “ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms, and industry practices.”
“Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users,” the company said. “Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements.”
Yeah, “unique elements” like oppression and lack of free speech. What a bunch of tools.
