MS not leaving China over censorship

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

• Discount UK Shopping

Shanghai, Nov 2: Microsoft Corp, the world’s biggest software maker, denied a report that it may reconsider operating in China because of government censorship.

‘‘We are not considering the suspension of our Internet services in China,’’ the Redmond, Washington-based company said on Thursday in an e-mailed statement. ‘‘Microsoft will continue to offer services and communications tools in China.’’

US lawmakers and human rights groups have criticised companies including Microsoft, Google Inc, and Yahoo! Inc for complying with Chinese government efforts to censor online content. China, the world’s second-biggest Internet market, controls traditional media through state ownership of all domestic newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations.

‘‘We believe it’s better for customers if Microsoft is present in global markets with these tools and services,’’ the company said.

BBC News reported on Thursday that Microsoft may reconsider its business in China because of the government’s persecution of people who operate blogs, citing Fred Tipson, senior policy counsel for Microsoft.

The software maker said the report was ‘‘inaccurate.’’

China may force web users to register their legal names with authorities before they are allowed to open a blog, the official Xinhua News Agency reported October 23. The policy may threaten the ability of blog users to express their thoughts freely, the Beijing-based news agency cited a blog owner identified as Xiaosha as saying.

Microsoft agreed in September to provide China Telecom Corp, owner of the nation’s biggest broadband Internet network, with web search services. The company’s Windows Live technology will be used to power China Telecom’s 114 web search network.

China’s Baidu.com Inc had a 50.3% share of the Chinese search market in the second quarter, compared with Google’s 16.2% and Yahoo’s 15.7%, according to Beijing-based research company Analysys International.

Microsoft was included in the ‘‘others’’ category, which had less than a combined 3.7% share, the researcher said.