TechWag

Reporters without Boarders is reporting that Microsoft and Yahoo have agreed in principle that they will start recording real names of Chinese bloggers, and delete information that the Chinese government deems bad. Yahoo and Microsoft already have a poor record of accomplishment when it comes to china and free speech, in one case with Yahoo, a Chinese dissident was jailed.

The French advocacy group reports that at least 20 blogging services, including Yahoo!.cn and MSN.cn, have agreed to the new “self-discipline pact” laid down by the Internet Society of China, a spin-off from the Information Industry Ministry. Under the pact, the services are encouraged to store the real names and contact details of Chinese bloggers and delete “illegal and bad” information from user comments. Source: The Register

While the agreement does not require the services to collect real names, reporters without boarders honestly believes that the next step is the requirement to do so. Moreover, that this will undermine free speech, and essentially but a government stamp on all bloggers in china.

Although how Microsoft, Yahoo and others are supposed to know what is good content and what is bad content, let alone deleting it will be interesting to observe.

The good part is that these are just recommendations at this point, these are things that the Chinese government would like to see done. How the companies approach their services, and if they put in an automated collection system in the first place will determine how long it will take the Chinese government to make those recommendations mandatory.

Just about everyone is going to agree that eventually those recommendations will be mandatory, and at that point, all the signatories to the agreement will have to decide what is the actual cost of compliance.

Tags: technology, Politics //