[governance] New York Time's - Kristof: Boycott Bing

[Nyangkwe Agien Aaron]

Kristof wrote

"But when Microsoft skews its worldwide searches to make Hu
Jintao feel better, that’s a disgrace. It becomes simply a unit of the
Central Committee Propaganda Department".

It is all business as usual. Microsoft wants to protect its business
interests in China as some western countries do African dictators and
oppressors. they defended Mobutu who plundered Zaire and many current
undemocratic kleptocrats standing for AFRICAN PRESIDENTS.

And Microsoft's being "committed to comprehensive results" is the same old
song being played by people defending their interests. That is why they
appreciated the dialogue that Kristof has ignited. Point final.

It is business as usual in the Darfur region, why not same with Google
censoring stuffs that displeases that business partner?.

You ain't going to kid around with a market of amost 2 billions people just
for the sake of freedom of expression. Isn't it?

Cheers and let oppression have its way for interests to glow.

Aaron

On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 4:17 PM, Yehuda Katz <yehudakatz at mailinator.com>wrote:

> NYT's Kristof: Boycott Bing
> Todd Bishop on Friday, November 20, 2009
>
> Art.Ref.:
>
> http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/11/nyts_kristof_calls_for_bing_boycott.html
>
> Art.Ref.: Link Ref.
> http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/boycott-microsoft-bing/
>
> -
>
> New York Time's Kristof: Boycott Bing ...
>
> [UPDATE, 8 p.m.: In a response to Kristof's post Friday evening, Microsoft
> said
> it's "committed to comprehensive results" and made it clear that it
> believes
> any problems are related to its search technology, not a purposeful attempt
> to
> omit controversial content. Microsoft's Adam Sohn cited "some queries that
> provide very balanced web results," such as a search in Simplified Chinese
> for
> "June 4th Tiananmen."
>
> "In addition, today’s investigations uncovered the fact that our image
> search
> is not functioning properly for queries entered using Simplified Chinese
> characters outside of the PRC. We have identified the bug and are at work
> on
> the fix. We expect to have this done before the Thanksgiving holiday," Sohn
> wrote. "Bing’s intent for these types of queries is to provide relevant and
> comprehensive results for our customers."
>
> He added, "We appreciate the dialog that Mr. Kristof has kicked off.
> Community
> feedback and input is incredibly important to Bing – it helps us do better
> and sometimes alerts us to things we can take immediate action to fix as we
> continue to improve."]
>
> Original post below.
> Microsoft's support for Referendum 71 won its Bing search engine a new fan
> in
> David Schmader of the Stranger, but the company's Internet search practices
> related to China have now lost Bing a user in Nicholas Kristof -- and the
> New
> York Times columnist is calling on his readers to follow suit with a
> boycott.
>
> Kristof's objection, outlined in a blog post this afternoon, centers around
> his
> observation that searches conducted using simplified Chinese characters in
> Bing
> return "sanitized pro-Communist results" not just in China but around the
> world. He questions Microsoft's claim that the results are determined by
> search
> algorithms, not its corporate policy. Here's an excerpt from his post.
>
> If you search a term on Bing that is politically sensitive in China, in
> English
> the results are legitimate. Search “Tiananmen” and you’ll find out about
> the army firing on pro-democracy protesters in 1989. Search Dalai Lama,
> Falun
> Gong and you also get credible results. Conduct the search in complex
> Chinese
> characters (the kind used in Taiwan and Hong Kong) and on the whole you
> still
> get authentic results.
> But conduct the search with the simplified characters used in mainland
> China,
> then you get sanitized pro-Communist results. This is especially true of
> image
> searches. Magic! No Tiananmen Square massacre. The Dalai Lama becomes an
> oppressor. Falun Gong believers are villains, not victims. What’s most
> offensive is that this is true wherever in the world the search is
> conducted
> – including in my office in New York. If Microsoft felt it had to bow to
> Chinese censorship within China’s borders, based on the IP address, that
> might be defensible. But when Microsoft skews its worldwide searches to
> make Hu
> Jintao feel better, that’s a disgrace. It becomes simply a unit of the
> Central Committee Propaganda Department.
> (This is an issue with Google as well, but to a much lesser extent. Google
> censors results on its search engine used within China, google.cn, but
> offers
> mostly uncensored results using simplified Chinese characters on its
> worldwide
> browser, google.com. However, some searches on google.com, such as images
> for
> Falun Gong, are also censored.) ...
>
> Kristof's Original Post (Full)
> See: Art. Link Ref.
> http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/boycott-microsoft-bing/
>
> -30-____________________________________________________________
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-- 
Aaron Agien Nyangkwe
Journalist-OutCome Mapper
Special Assistant The President
ASAFE
P.O.Box 5213
Douala-Cameroon

Tel. 237 3337 55 31, 3337 50 22
Fax. 237 3342 29 70
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