Unscrupulous Actions

Been on holiday recently, so apologies for not blogging for a while.

It was good to see the big boys getting a bashing in the press the other day over their behaviour in China.

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! were all labeled ‘morally unacceptable’ for blocking information to Chinese users that the Chinese government did not want them to see. Yahoo! in particular came in for special criticism in the report from the Human Rights Watch entitled 'Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship' for handing over end user details to the Chinese government.

Surely there should be some way of stopping this from happening? What are the chances of the US or the UK implementing extra-territorial jurisdiction (making companies or individuals adhere to the law of their origin country wherever they operate in the world) so that companies that are complicit in these acts– that undoubtedly end up with the end user being given more than warm hug by the Chinese government – are prevented from doing so? It applies in the arms trade to stop unscrupulous dealers from circumnavigating trade embargoes and in the information age, where knowledge can be just as potent a weapon, surely there should be some way of protecting a user’s rights?

In the US earlier this year Google defied a White House subpoena to hand over some of its search information, whilst interestingly Yahoo! caved under similar conditions. So there is at least some resistance out there, although I suspect it is more about competitive advantage than anything else.

Will the criticism really make a difference? I fear not. The truth is that the Chinese market is the last big opportunity for these companies to land grab and they will do anything they can to ensure that they pick up as many customers as possible. If that means cowtowing to the Chinese government, then so be it.