Skype admits filtering text in China
Voice over IP firm Skype has admitted that its partner in China has filtered text messages between users of the Skype service there, arguing that it has to comply with Chinese law.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Niklas Zennstrom, Skype’s chief executive, admitted that the company had censored messages containing words that offend the Chinese regime.
Among these are ‘Falun Gong’ – a persecuted religious group in China – and ‘Dalai Lama’, the spiritual leader of Tibet who now lives in India as a refugee after China’s invasion of Tibet in the 50s.
Zennstrom told the FT that Skype’s partner in China, Tom Online had to comply with local law in order to business in China
“Tom had implemented a text filter, which is what everyone else in that market is doing… Those are the regulations,” Zennstrom told the FT.
He added: “I may like or not like the laws and regulations to operate businesses in the UK or Germany or the US, but if I do business there I choose to comply with those laws and regulations. I can try to lobby to change them, but I need to comply with them. China in that way is not different.”
Zennstrom argued that “those things are in no way jeopardising the privacy or the security of any of the users.”
Chinese security services regularly imprison citizens who search for information on the Dalai Lama or Falun Gong.
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