The claims that companies like Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google are making are absolutely abhorrent. Those companies should actually be making an effort to comply with international human rights standards rather than caving to the Chinese government at the slightest "law". I understand that internet companies are a little nebulous and illusory to be making huge, obvious stances for human rights, but they can do better than they have been doing. Their reaction is very typical of corporate America: just blame someone else and you won't have to actually do anything to remedy the situation. This reaction frustrates me because I am more ideologically and honor driven than economicly driven; I could never be the CEO of a multi-national corporation. Also, I know that some aspects of human rights complicate the market economic system, but some things are more important than profit. Like freedom of expression. Sure, some information is better than none, but freedom of information is better than partial information.
Foreign companies should comply with local laws. That being said, the Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and also states that "information cannot be disseminated which is against the principles of the Constitution." But the Chinese government pushes the companies to censor themselves. How much does the Chinese Constitution even mean, since the government is contradicting itself? By the government contradicting itself in this manner, it is impossible for the companies to know which "laws" to follow. Therefore, the companies should follow thier own codes of conduct (or even the laws of their home countries), which doesn't seem to be the case. Basically, the companies will do whatever they think will cause the least outcry, or whatever they think they can get away with.
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