The controversy over U.S. businesses’ dealings with repressive governments bloomed anew last month when it emerged that Microsoft programmed its MSN Spaces blog-hosting service to prohibit phrases like “human rights,” “freedom” and “democracy” from the titles of Chinese blogs and postings, in an apparent bid to curry favor with China’s ruling Communist Party.
And in addition to the OpenNet report, Cisco recently came under fire when author Ethan Gutman revealed the company was aggressively marketing mobile police-networking equipment to Chinese law enforcement agencies.
Export constraints passed in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre block U.S. companies from selling “any crime control or detection instruments or equipment” to China. Cisco says networking equipment is not covered by the prohibition. “We do sell our products to law enforcement agencies around the world, including China,” says Alberstein. “And we do that in full compliance with Department of Commerce export regulations.”
“This is an issue we’re going to be encountering more and more,” says Rebecca MacKinnon, a research fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. “Can companies just claim a total lack of political responsibility in how their technology is used in all instances? It’s something that companies should be thinking about when they sell their technologies around the world.”
