Msoft tightens blogging policy

2006-02-01 10:36

Seattle - Microsoft Corp is tightening its policies regarding blocking web journals after its much-publicised shut down of a well-known Chinese blogger at that government's request.

The Redmond, Washington-based software company, which operates a popular blogging technology called MSN Spaces, said on Tuesday that the changes will include efforts to make the banned content available to users elsewhere in the world even if Microsoft decides it has a legal duty to block it in a particular country.

The company also pledged to provide users with a clear notice that it has shut down a website because it received a legally binding notice that the material violates local laws. Previously, it has simply said the content was unavailable.

Company bound by local laws

Brad Smith, Microsoft's top lawyer, said it will depend on the circumstances of the shutdown as to whether the new policy means that an archive of the blog will remain available elsewhere, or that the web blog's author will be able to continue posting information to users outside the country that ordered the blockage.

"Some of this, I think, we just have to recognise is evolving technology and changing law," said Smith from a Microsoft-sponsored government conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

MSN Spaces, which allows users to post journals, pictures and other content on the internet, boasts 35 million users, including 3.3 million in China.

The company has maintained that it is important to be able to provide users in other countries with such tools, even as it insists it is bound by local laws when it operates in those places.

"We think that blogging and similar tools are powerful vehicles for economic development and for creativity and free expression. They are tools that do good," Smith said. "We believe that it's better to make these tools available than not, but that isn't the end of the discussion, either."

Blogger touched a nerve

Late last year, Microsoft shut down the site of a popular Chinese blogger at the government's request. The blog, written under the pen name An Ti, by Zhao Jing, touch on sensitive topics such as China's relations with Taiwan and press freedoms in China.

Microsoft rivals, including Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, also have grappled with censoring offerings in foreign countries.

Google said last week it would filter sensitive topics from web searches in China. Yahoo came under fire last year after it provided the government with the e-mail account information of a Chinese journalist who was later convicted for violating state secrecy laws.

Smith said on Tuesday that Microsoft hopes to build industry and government support for more formal policies on dealing with content censorship requests from foreign governments, but he wouldn't say whether he had spoken with competitors directly.

John Palfrey, executive director of Harvard Law School's Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, lauded Microsoft's moves as an important first step. But he expected Microsoft to face considerable pressure from governments if it does start disclosing government censorship, and makes good on its pledge to show censored data outside the country in question.

- AP