Microsoft as State-Run Thug

I'm fond of saying that if Microsoft made automobiles, it would be bankrupt because they'd all be broken down on the side of the road.

That's an exaggeration, of course, but it speaks to a truth: We rely on MS's Windows operating system, Internet Explorer web browser and its other software to an inordinate extent, and the reliability of these products -- as well as their vulnerability to viruses, worms and other unpleasantnesses -- is an issue year in and year out.

Then there is Microsoft as corporate bully. Its hardball tactics are hardly a secret and have squashed many a would-be rival in an industry that pays lip service to product diversity but hardly embraces it.

Finally, there is Microsoft as Big Brother.

In some respects, this is the most troubling thing about Bill Gates' gang from Redmond, Washington, and is currently on glaring display in a case involving a blogger from a place that knows a thing or three about Big Brother -- the People's Republic of China.

After being called out by an enterprising investigative reporter, Microsoft has admitted to sucking up to censorious government authorities in China, one of its most important and fast growing markets, by removing the blog of an outspoken Chinese journalist from its MSN Spaces site.

The blog, written by Zhao Jing, was removed from MSN servers on New Year's Eve, according to investigative journalist and former CNN reporter Rebecca Mackinnon.

Said Microsoft:

MSN is committed to ensuring that products and services comply with global and local laws, norms, and industry practices. Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users. Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements.

Microsoft skated around the issue of why it blocked a site that was hosted in the U.S. in order to comply with Chinese law.

Responding to Mackinnon's report, Microsoft's own in-house blogger, Robert Scoble, said that he was "depressed" by the news and offered the Chinese blogger the opportunity to blog via his site.

Wrote Scoble:

Guys over at MSN: sorry, I don't agree with your being used as a state-run thug. It's one thing to pull a list of words out of a blog using an algorithm. It's another thing to become an agent of a government and censor an entire blogger's work.

Microsoft has not been the only U.S. software company playing Big Brother. In September, Yahoo was heavily criticized when it was learned that it had provided information to Chinese authorities that led to the imprisonment of another Chinese journalist.

For the record, Kiko's House tries to avoid using Microsoft products for all the above reasons.

Consequently, this blog is supported by Google (and will continue to be until which time it flexes its considerable muscle in a disagreeable way), while my browser of choice is Mozilla's wonderfully problem-free Firefox. I also plan to migrate from Windows to the Linux open-source operating system.