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Rebecca MacKinnon
governments in the industrialized West, let alone anywhere else.
4 In the fi rst ONI
volume, Access Denied , Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey called for an industry code
of conduct.
5 In 2008 came the launch of the Global Network Initiative (GNI), a multistakeholder initiative through which companies not only make a commitment to core
principles of free expression and privacy, but also agree to be evaluated independently
on the extent to which they actually adhere to these principles.
6 In the second ONI
volume, Access Controlled, Colin Maclay examined the challenges facing this newly
formed organization, a core challenge being the recruitment of members.
7 As of this
writing, only three companies, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, have agreed to be held
publicly accountable for the way in which they handle government demands for
censorship and surveillance around the world. No other North American companies
have made this public commitment, and no companies from any other continents or
regions have yet been willing to make a similar public commitment to free expression
and privacy as a core component of responsible business practice.
Yet other forms of CSR — including environmental, labor, and sustainability standards — are by no means foreign to Asian businesses, even in China.
8 Might public
expectations for corporate accountability in the area of free speech and privacy
also rise in Asia in the coming years — particularly if these expectations are fed by
increased civil society activism, pushing for greater accountability and transparency
by ICT companies around their interactions with governments? In this chapter I
compare government censorship and surveillance demands faced by companies in
authoritarian China alongside the challenges faced by companies in two neighboring
democracies that also have robust ICT industries and markets: South Korea and India.
I argue that efforts to hold companies other than Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft
accountable for free speech and privacy in authoritarian countries like China will face
an uphill battle unless companies in Asia ’ s democracies are pushed by domestic civil
society actors to defend and protect user rights in a more robust manner than is currently the case.
China: “ Networked Authoritarianism ” and the Private Sector
9
As ONI research over the past decade has shown, China has the world ’ s most sophisticated system of Internet fi ltering, which blocks access to vast numbers of Web sites
and online content hosted by companies and on computer servers located mainly
outside China.
10 But fi ltering is only the top layer of the country ’ s elaborate system
of Internet censorship. For Web sites run by individuals or companies located inside
China, the government has direct jurisdiction — and thus more powerful instruments
of control. Why merely fi lter a Web page when you can get it removed from the
Internet completely or prevent its publication or dissemination in the fi rst place? Over
the past decade as Internet penetration grew rapidly in China, government regulators
Rebecca MacKinnon
governments in the industrialized West, let alone anywhere else.
4 In the fi rst ONI
volume, Access Denied , Jonathan Zittrain and John Palfrey called for an industry code
of conduct.
5 In 2008 came the launch of the Global Network Initiative (GNI), a multistakeholder initiative through which companies not only make a commitment to core
principles of free expression and privacy, but also agree to be evaluated independently
on the extent to which they actually adhere to these principles.
6 In the second ONI
volume, Access Controlled, Colin Maclay examined the challenges facing this newly
formed organization, a core challenge being the recruitment of members.
7 As of this
writing, only three companies, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, have agreed to be held
publicly accountable for the way in which they handle government demands for
censorship and surveillance around the world. No other North American companies
have made this public commitment, and no companies from any other continents or
regions have yet been willing to make a similar public commitment to free expression
and privacy as a core component of responsible business practice.
Yet other forms of CSR — including environmental, labor, and sustainability standards — are by no means foreign to Asian businesses, even in China.
8 Might public
expectations for corporate accountability in the area of free speech and privacy
also rise in Asia in the coming years — particularly if these expectations are fed by
increased civil society activism, pushing for greater accountability and transparency
by ICT companies around their interactions with governments? In this chapter I
compare government censorship and surveillance demands faced by companies in
authoritarian China alongside the challenges faced by companies in two neighboring
democracies that also have robust ICT industries and markets: South Korea and India.
I argue that efforts to hold companies other than Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft
accountable for free speech and privacy in authoritarian countries like China will face
an uphill battle unless companies in Asia ’ s democracies are pushed by domestic civil
society actors to defend and protect user rights in a more robust manner than is currently the case.
China: “ Networked Authoritarianism ” and the Private Sector
9
As ONI research over the past decade has shown, China has the world ’ s most sophisticated system of Internet fi ltering, which blocks access to vast numbers of Web sites
and online content hosted by companies and on computer servers located mainly
outside China.
10 But fi ltering is only the top layer of the country ’ s elaborate system
of Internet censorship. For Web sites run by individuals or companies located inside
China, the government has direct jurisdiction — and thus more powerful instruments
of control. Why merely fi lter a Web page when you can get it removed from the
Internet completely or prevent its publication or dissemination in the fi rst place? Over
the past decade as Internet penetration grew rapidly in China, government regulators