MSN hates "Democracy" and "Freedom"?

Despite the fact that we live in the XXI'th century, there are some parts of this world where censorship is still a national policy, and there are also some major companies which are willing to go as far as to "sell their soul" in order to substantially increase their profits.

This seems to be the case of MSN China, a very service that could turn out to be very profitable for Microsoft, taking into account the large number of Chinese Internet surfers. It looks like the giant from Redmond had to "overlook" the values of democracy that are the fundaments of American life, in order to adapt to the local requirements imposed by the Chinese authorities.

Thus, it is reported that the use of words as "democracy", "freedom", "demonstration", „Taiwan independence" have been banned in the Chinese version of the MSN. The site blocks anti-communist phrases, by sending an error message to any user employing them, warning him that the phrase he/she used contains "forbidden language" and asking him/her to change it.

Microsoft has tried to avoid discussing the issue of censorship, hiding behind the MSN Code of Conduct, and mentioning the fact that "MSN abides by the laws and regulations of each country in which it operates".

MSN China, which has been operating for a month now, represents a partnership between Microsoft and a Chinese state-owned company, Shanghai Alliance Investment. Thus, the involvement of the Chinese state in this matter is quite obvious, considering its recent attempts to censor certain areas of the Internet, by imposing the registration of websites with the state, as the only alternative to complete shut down.

As a conclusion, we cannot help but wonder, do democratic principles still stand for something in the case of a multi-national company as Microsoft, or have they been completely replaced by a desire for profit, with a total disregard for any moral dilemmas?