Friday, August 22, 2008

Nike tries to out anonymous Chinese blogger

This is quite an interesting interplay indeed going on between China an US Corporations. Some, such as Yahoo, are taking fire for outing formerly anonymous Internet commentators and do so only when they have to. Others, such as Nike, jump at the chance to subvert freedom of speech. Nike is trying to co-opt the Chinese government to out an anonymous blogger who said some not-so-nice things about their brand. It's sad to see American corporations to stoop to the level of an oppressive authoritarian state, but I guess I should have seen it coming. Something tells me China won't have much a problem complying with Nike's request, given all the other ways in which they mistreat their citizens.
"We want to act to protect our brand reputation in the same way as any corporation would want to if people were posting or writing false accusations," [the Nike spokesperson] said. "This isn't about a debate on freedom of speech. It's simply helping us to identify the person who posted it."
Sure this isn't about freedom of speech... if you're brain dead.

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