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China-Japan-Koreas
Don't mention democracy, Microsoft tells China web users
2005-06-11
EFL - via Lucianne.com


Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing's political censors.

Users of the joint-venture portal, formally launched last month, have been blocked from using a range of potentially sensitive words to label personal websites they create using its free online blog service, MSN Spaces.

Attempts to input words in Chinese such as "democracy" prompted an error message from the site: "This item contains forbidden speech. Please delete the forbidden speech from this item." Other phrases banned included the Chinese for "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence".
Posted by:Omaviling Shaish8301

#9  freedom, democracy, freedom, democracy, Yahoo ain't America great!!!! I bet the word capitolism is allowed. I'm sure all those chinese kids are smart enough to get past it.
Posted by: 49 pan   2005-06-11 21:45  

#8  Bill Gates never invented anything
Posted by: True German Ally   2005-06-11 21:24  

#7  The internet without freedom of expression - Bill Gates has invented electronic 3.2 beer.
Posted by: Super Hose   2005-06-11 20:27  

#6  Linux loves democracy
Posted by: True German Ally   2005-06-11 19:38  

#5  Tee hee hee! Just wait until the Chicom censors discover "Jesus Loves Chicom Leaders", "Red is Better with White & Blue", "Bring the Cultural Revolution Back!", Mao killed yo pimp daddy so what!", "Got Little Red Book?", Hey look! No freedom ma!", "Tibet yesterday, Nepal soon, Taiwan tomorrow!", and "Yes we have no Korean War American War Prisoners" in their MS 95 software packages.... little teenie weenie red commie packages I might add.
Posted by: Shomble Shoger7533   2005-06-11 19:30  

#4  Ah, for the good old days...

{The Wall Street Journal, 30-Sep,1996} Microsoft said it issued instructions to Windows 95 users in China on how to remove a pair of anti-Communist slogans from the software that Chinese government officials said were offensive. A Microsoft spokeswoman said a service update for the removal of the Chinese-language phrases had been issued in China Saturday. The phrases included one referring to China's leadership as "Communist bandits" and another that called on Taiwan's government to "take back the mainland."
Microsoft said it is still investigating how the slogans made it into the Windows 95 kits. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the software was written by contractors and not by the company's own software writers.


Taiwanese contractors, maybe?
Posted by: tu3031   2005-06-11 19:14  

#3  Time for "banana" and "strawberry".
Posted by: John fn Kerry   2005-06-11 18:25  

#2  okay, how about a euphemism: "Fuck the Politburo"?
Posted by: Frank G   2005-06-11 18:14  

#1  China sounds to me like it is heading down the same road as russia did in the late 80's. Didn't work so well for russia.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2005-06-11 18:00  

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