28 October 2008

Internet giants attempt to shush free speech activists

A new voluntary code of ethics for internet companies is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Leading the development of internet free speech is the US Centre for Democracy and Technology, several human rights groups and, of course, some of the main technology companies who are going to be directly affected. The code, which has been two years in the making, hopes to offer guidelines to digital companies doing business in nations, like China, where internet censorship is commonplace.

The focus of the code has mainly been on internet search giants Yahoo! and Google, both of which have come under scrutiny from free speech activists and the media for their co-operation with authorities in China. Both companies hope that the code will give them guidelines that will satisfy both their critics in Western Europe and the Chinese authorities who will dictate their business activities in the Celestial Empire.

Criticism towards Google has mainly been directed at its censorship of Google China's search results on topics relating to democracy and Chinese history, most notably searches on Tiananmen Square. Although much of the noise came from free speech activists, Yahoo's involvement has been more publicised by human rights activists. The majority of attention has been focused on Yahoo's co-operation with the Chinese government, giving them access to many of their users' e-mail accounts. Following the handover of these accounts, many Chinese citizens were jailed for their divergent political opinions. Battered by the publicity nightmare, Yahoo! went on to sell a large portion of its Chinese operations to Alibaba in October 2005.

Ironically, it's been very difficult to get a better idea of how many technology companies are integrating these ethical guidelines. However, companies like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have not publically shown any support. These companies were the focus of the New York Times expose in 2005, in which each were shown to be working alongside the Bush administration to monitor millions of Americans all believed to be "communicating with people connected with terrorism".

Although the ethics code is a brave step forward, it has not received complete support from some human rights groups. Morton Sklaw, executive director for the World Organisation of Human Rights USA, says the code has too many loopholes that can be abused by the internet companies in order to progress their business interests. The code also fails to regulate hardware companies who sell internet filtering systems to China, a major parallel issue within the digital human rights debate.

The finalisation of this internet and business ethics code couldn't have come at a worse time for eBay-owned VOIP service, Skype. Last month Canadian researchers discovered that its Chinese partner, Tom Online, was filtering messages containing politically sensitive words and storing them for future inspection.

Although the code has received praise from human rights groups and free speech activists, most will admit that it is only a small step towards solving a huge problem. While technology companies will be given better advice to guide their actions, these guidelines are said to be vague at best and, at the end of the day, does not guarantee user protection.

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