Web Censorship

Politicians on Wednesday attacked Cisco, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! for declining to appear at a briefing about China's internet censorship and called for a new law to outlaw compliance with such requirements.

"With all their power and influence, wealth and high visibility, they neglected to commit to the kind of positive action that human rights activists in China take every day. They caved in to Beijing's demands for the sake of profits, or whatever else they choose to call it."

Cisco, for its part, distributed a statement at Tuesday's briefing confirming its attendance at Smith's upcoming hearing. The company acknowledged again that it sells its routers in China but that their inherent features, including the ability to filter content, are no different from those sold in any other country, including the US.

Microsoft and Yahoo! issued a joint statement in which they encouraged the US government to step up and take a leadership role in opening "government to government" dialogue with China and other countries "where internet content is treated more restrictively". Google's senior policy counsel, Andrew McLaughlin, echoed that idea in a blog entry and apologized for Google's absence, which he put down to "previously scheduled commitments".

Before we start echoing the politicians, we should really start to think what censorship really is.