Microsoft bows to censorship

Microsoft helps China to censor bloggers
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Wednesday June 15, 2005
From the Guardian

Civil liberties groups have condemned an arrangement between Microsoft and Chinese authorities to censor the internet.
The American company is helping censors remove "freedom" and "democracy" from the net in China with a software package that prevents bloggers from using these and other politically sensitive words on their websites.
The restrictions, which also include an automated denial of "human rights", are built into MSN Spaces, a blog service launched in China last month by Shanghai MSN Network Communications Technology, a venture in which Microsoft holds a 50% stake.
Users who try to include such terms in subject lines are warned: "This topic contains forbidden words. Please delete them."