The Meat of the Matter

Welcome China to the "Too Much Information Age"

Bill Gates, one of the world's richest men, places profit over American values.  Apparently, China wants to be part of the Information Age, but they don't want all information available to it's proletariat to browse. Words like "democracy", "freedom", "human rights", "demonstration", and "Taiwan independance" are considered profanity to China's government. And what could be even more profane than for three big American Corporations to conspire with China's oppressive government by creating web portals that enable this censorship. To quote the article further: The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) earlier said it "deplores the irresponsible policies of United States Internet firms Yahoo! and Google in bowing directly and indirectly to Chinese government demands for censorship". It has called on the United States to apply the principles of its Global Internet Freedom Act on its private sector's activities in "some of the world's most repressive regimes". The Global Internet Freedom Act, passed by the US House of Representatives in July 2003, aims to combat online censorship imposed by governments around the world. In their efforts to conquer the Chinese market, Yahoo! and Google are "making compromises that directly threaten freedom of expression," RSF has said. ______________________ There's only one thing to do. We have to protest Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! I will stand by to see how these three large organizations respond. If they don't respond well, then some grass-roots action will be in order. (Sigh--what a pain in the ass.) I'm all for companies making money for being innovative. But I am sickened by these examples of money-grubbing at the sake of basic freedoms.