News: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft urge U.S. to get involved in China censorship fight (ha ha)

There is a Chinese saying about this kind of behavior. It goes something like, "Put up a flowery display. Make a distraction, hide behind it and disappear really quickly."

Several technology companies may skip a Congressional meeting on human rights, China and the Internet.

With less than two days left before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus’ event,
not one of the four companies–Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Cisco–has
agreed to send a representative, according to the caucus.

   "We’re definitely not going to
see somebody from Cisco and Microsoft," caucus spokeswoman Lynne Weil
said Monday. "We’re obviously hopeful, but with less than 48 hours to
go before the event, it’s hard to imagine why we wouldn’t have heard
back."

The event comes a few days after Google opened a China-based
censored version of its search engine. Google received reactions
ranging from strident criticism to begrudging acceptance that
censorship is the price of doing business with the Chinese Communist Party. According to the caucus’ announcement,
"instead of promoting freedom of speech and democracy, some U.S.
companies have been charged with aiding–or at least complying
with–Chinese Internet censorship."

Tech firms skip D.C.-China shindig

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Google, Yahoo, Microsoft urge U.S. to get involved in China censorship fight
February 1, 2006 12:12 PM PST

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft–criticized for acquiescing to Chinese censorship rules–say the U.S. government should be doing more to get China to loosen up.

In lieu of sending executives to appear before a Congressional Human Rights Caucus hearing on Wednesday, the companies sent statements. 

"In addition to common action by Internet companies, there is an
important role for the United States government to address, in the
context of its bilateral government-to-government relationships, the
larger issues of free expression and open communication. For example,
as a U.S.-based company that deals primarily in information, we have
urged the United States government to treat censorship as a barrier to
trade," Google’s senior policy counsel Andrew McLaughlin wrote in a statement posted on the Google Blog.

In a separate joint statement, Yahoo and Microsoft had a similar message:

"While we believe that companies have a responsibility to identify
appropriate practices in each market in which they do business, we
think there is a vital role for government-to-government discussion of
the larger issues involved. We urge the United States government to
take a leadership role in this regard and have initiated a dialogue
with relevant U.S. officials to encourage such government-to-government
engagement," the statement said.

They also said they were actively exploring potential approaches to guide industry practices and defended their actions.

"We do not consider the Internet situation in China to be one of
‘business-as usual.’ Beyond commercial considerations, we believe that
our services have promoted personal expression and enabled far wider
access to independent sources of information for hundreds of millions
of individuals in China and elsewhere in the world," the statement
said.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft urge U.S. to get involved in China censorship fight