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Google and MS in a soup over China censoring

Pasing the buck? Read this in Google today. Here’s Google and Microsoft passing the buck to the US government!

Google and Microsoft on Wednesday tried to deflect criticism of their business practices in China by calling on the US government to take a more active role in promoting freedom in the communist country through "government-to-government" engagement.

The comments were made as the companies, along with Cisco and Yahoo, have come under intense scrutiny in Washington because of allegations that the groups' adherence to Chinese censorship rules and other regulations represented a capitulation to China's government.

Here’s what they actually did. This is what they are attracting criticism for!

Congressional human rights advocates Wednesday hammered four Internet giants -- Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco Systems -- for helping Chinese authorities censor Web information and crack down on cyber-dissidents and warned that bipartisan legislation to prevent such cooperation could move forward rapidly.

The four companies have found a rapidly growing market in China, where there are now more than 110 million Internet users, second only to the United States. But the Internet industry has been castigated for its reported cooperation with Chinese authorities who have demanded strict controls, including software that detects and filters out such sensitive words or phrases as "democracy," "Dalai Lama,'' "Tiananmen massacre'' and "China torture'' and blocks access to certain chat rooms and bulletin boards.