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Internet phone firm Skype says Chinese partner filtering text messages; defends censorshipThe Associated Press Internet phone company Skype (News - Alert) said its Chinese partner is filtering text messages, but defended the step as necessary to comply with Chinese law, the Financial Times newspaper reported. Skype chief executive Niklas Zennstrom, speaking in an interview, was responding to accusations that its Chinese partner, Tom Online, censored messages containing references to the Dalai Lama, the banned Falun Gong spiritual group and other sensitive topics, the FT said. "Tom had implemented a text filter, which is what everyone else in that market is doing," Zennstrom was quoted as saying. "Those are the regulations." Skype is owned by U.S.-based eBay Inc. Zennstrom insisted that the actions of the Skype-Tom partnership had not put users at risk, the FT said. Other firms including Yahoo Inc., Google (News - Alert) Inc. and Microsoft (News - Alert) Corp. have been criticized for cooperating with the Chinese government's effort to censor Internet content. |