1. China, the Internet, and Corporate Responsibility Some observations and questions

2. Questions from CIRC 2005

The Internet is changing China

but how is China changing the Internet?

Many people discuss the former, far fewer explore the latter

3. Questions: Role of businesses

What is the role of Internet and telecoms companies - both foreign and Chinese - in helping to shape Chinas standards, practices, and regulatory norms?

Do they have any room to make choices about what they will and wont do, how they do it, and how far they will go?

To what extent will the accepted way of doing business and standard regulatory norms in China eventually impact the global internet?

4. A global situation Government Company User 5. Foreign businessperson in China recently wrote:

Ultimately, to succeed in China, businesses must assume the goals of the Communist Party as their own.

--- Mr. X, a foreign media entrepreneur based in China

Far Eastern Economic Review , May 2008

http://www.feer.com/essays/2008/may/chinas-holistic-censorship-regime

6. Shi Tao: Jailed 10 years with Yahoo!s help. 7. Aiding Big Brother

Yahoo:aided in jailing of dissidents, heavily censors Chinese-language search

Google:offers censored Chinese search, Google.cn

MSNcensored Chinese bloggers - but has modified policy in reaction to criticism; continues to offer censored search

Ciscosells surveillance tech to Chinese police

Skypefilters text chat via Chinese partner

Etc.

8. Foreign companies say:

We have no choice we have to abide by the same rules that apply to Chinese companies, or we cant do business here.

Question: Is it really true that they have absolutely no choice whatsoever?

Findings of Human Rights Watch (2006); U. of Torontos Nart Villeneuve (draft paper 2008): All search engines in China are censoring to very different degrees, according to very different methods.

9. HKU Blog censorship testing:Dalai Lama letter to the worlds Chinese people 10. Tianya: censored(10 out of 17 blog hosting services censored the Dalai Lama letter) 11. Xinhuanet article 12. 15 blog-hosting services didnt censor Xinhua at allBUT 13. Mop.com censors Xinhua 14. Blogbus takes different approach 15. Blog censorship testing

Initial observations:

Highly inconsistent across topics, timeframes, etc.

Each service uses different methods

Each service appears to use different criteria

QUESTION: does this mean that there is room for some industry choice and best practice even in Chinas censorship system?

16. Blogger sued his Chinese blog host for censorship Consumer rights! Breach of contract! 17. Setting global standards:race to the bottom? Government Company User 18. Its an issue in democracies too (U.S. govt. secret surveillance, etc.) User 19. Global industry code of conduct?

Must be truly global.

Focus on transparency and accountability.

Support users ability to make informed decisions about how and when to use a service