Randomly Noted

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, in a speech in Houston today, compared China’s censorship of the internet to Europe’s Nazi hate crime laws and the U.S.’s anti-child porn laws. This comes a week after rival Google stood up to China, putting at risk its business future in that country. Needless to say, what Beijing does to stifle the free flow of information (and much else) cannot be compared with European post-WWII anti-hate laws and American prohibitions on child pornography. Colleague Angel Gonzalez covered Ballmer’s appearance before an audience of Texas oil and gas executives. Angel writes that Ballmer told the group “most countries exert some sort of control over information; in France, it’s illegal to trade Nazi paraphernalia, for example, and the U.S. has strict laws to curb child pornography. ‘We have to take our cue here from the U.S. government,’ he said.” Granted, many Western companies find ways to comply with distasteful Chinese laws without (completely) compromising their morals and standards. But simply put, Ballmer might have found a way to describe the nature of this quandary without so blatantly appeasing Chinese officialdom.