Even if Google Uncensors Its Chinese Search, Microsoft has no Plans to Follow

From DailyTech: Censorship is the name of the game in China's media market. If you aren't willing to filter out content the government finds unacceptable, you aren't allowed to do business with the nation's over 1 billion people. For most companies, that's too tempting a target to miss. Blind compliance has been a typical precedent in the past.

However, Google, far and away the internet's largest search provider, is hardly your average company. When Chinese hackers stole information from Google in mid-December, the search giant's simmering frustration boiled over and it announced on January 12 that it would begin uncensoring it Chinese search. Currently the company complies with local laws and filters out banned topics like the forbidden Fulun Gong spiritual movement and Tibetan independence.

Now the company has cooled slightly and is in talks with the National People's Congress, China's parliament, in Beijing according to Reuters. News of the talks was released by Li Yizhong, minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Google is still quite unhappy with China. The results of its investigation concluded that the attack in December originated from two Chinese schools and used malware written by a Chinese security consultant in his 30s, a man who reportedly had deep government links. Google is also trying to reconcile the idea of continuing to obey China's censorship edict with its policy of internet freedom and equality.

China, meanwhile insists censorship is essential for maintaining a healthy society. They point to current U.S. child pornography laws and pending legislation in the U.S. that would monitor citizens' online activities for copyright infringement as proof that it's not the only major nation with plans to filter objectionable traffic. As to the claims that the Google attacks originated in China, a Chinese official called them "groundless."

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