Yahoo, Google, Microsoft Guaranteed To Have Big Banners At Olympics

Even as native-born dissidents are attempting to hack down China's web firewall, three American corporations are helping the people's republic to maintain that needed control over the masses' access to information.

Seems that Yahoo, Google and Microsoft are more than willing to wink at human rights issues when it comes to their own back pockets:

Chinese dissident Bill Xia is among a group of U.S.-based computer hackers —or "hacktivists" — who send mass e-mails to Internet users in China that contain software or links to safe Web sites that enable readers to bypass government roadblocks on the Internet.

Noble. A shout out to his oppressed people to say the least. Just where do these companies fall at the gate called concern? let's see:

As distressing as is Beijing's control of information, Xia said that the censorship continues with the help of some of America's largest and best-known firms — such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft.

"United States is based on freedom of expression and other personal freedoms," Xia
said. "However, many of those companies actually help with censorship in countries like China. So I think this is outrageous."Nothing better illustrates this than doing a Google Images search for "Tiananmen Square."

Do it in the U.S. and you get images of the 1989 pro-democracy rally in Beijing and the government's violent military response.

Do the same search in China, however, and it produces tourist photographs of the public square without scenes of civil unrest.

Of course, the mind immediately races from redacted images of China's televised massacre to an assumed and dubious freedom of information regarding the "sins" of Halliburton, the American Slave trade, and George Bush's Pyrrhic, "Mission Accomplished" moment. So if one plans to challenging the patriotism of any of these people, one should also take care to no try Googling the evidence--you won't find it.

-R