According to an article by Agence France-Presse (AFP) that appeared on Yahoo, the Chinese government has expanded its censorship of the internet to include Bing.com, Live.com, and Hotmail.com, three sites owned by U.S.-based Microsoft.
The AFP noted that the censorship of the three sites comes “ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown” and that access to Bing.com, Live.com, and Hotmail.com began being limited on Tuesday. Kevin Kutz, the Director of Public Affairs for Microsoft, told the AFP, “Microsoft is committed to helping advance the free flow of information and is committed to encouraging transparency, due process, and rule of law when it comes to Internet governance.” Other sites that are largely inaccessible in the Asian nation include Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Opera, and WordPress.
The story about China’s increased censorship of the internet appeared on the front page of Yahoo late Tuesday night ET. Similar censorship is taking place in the United States. In Minnesota, the Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division authored a letter to 11 of the world’s largest internet service providers (ISPs) calling for 200 gambling websites to be blocked within the state’s borders. The 200 sites in question spanned the industry, including everything from online poker sites to sports books. Moreover, a bevy of the sites targeted do not accept players from the United States, including Everest Poker, the official on-felt sponsor of the ongoing 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
The letter to ISPs prompted a civil suit by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) against John Willems in his capacity as the Director of the Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division. In addition, the trade organization authored a letter of its own to ISPs, refuting the State’s assertion that the Wire Act of 1961 compelled the ISPs to comply. The letter from Willems to the ISPs threatened action from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for non-compliance.
iMEGA Chairman Joe Brennan told Poker News Daily, “I find it somewhat ironic that Chinese internet censorship was the lead story on Yahoo’s homepage since the site filters out search results in China because they don’t want to anger the Chinese government and be prevented from having access to the market entirely. In Minnesota, it’s the same principle: the central government is deciding what content citizens can access.” In addition to Everest Poker, other sites in jeopardy that do not accept U.S. customers include BetFred, Betway, CD Poker, GNUF, Hollywood Poker, Noble Poker, Titan Poker, and the casino arms of Ladbrokes and Party Gaming. The latter two are publicly traded companies on the London Stock Exchange.
U.S.-facing sites identified in the letter to ISPs include Bodog (listed as BoDog), Full Tilt Poker, and Players Only, which makes its home on the Cake Poker Network. Willems told Poker News Daily in an April interview that the list of 200 sites was drawn randomly from a larger list. Brennan commented, “What can be seen online is not being determined democratically. You have government officials saying that certain content is illegal and blocking it even though the law doesn’t support it.” iMEGA has argued that the Wire Act does not apply to ISPs, which do not, in essence, manage internet gambling. Moreover, the Wire Act has traditionally applied to “common carriers,” a term referring to companies that provide home telephone service.
In Kentucky, iMEGA is in the midst of a separate lawsuit against the state’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet over the seizure and potential forfeiture of 141 internet gambling domain names, including those belonging to PokerStars, Ultimate Bet, and Cake Poker. iMEGA recently filed its brief to the Kentucky Supreme Court after a two to one ruling in January by the Court of Appeals that the State did not have jurisdiction to act. Kentucky’s lawyers promptly appealed the decision and will now file a response brief before the case resumes. Brennan added, “They cannot cite any law that makes internet gambling illegal in Kentucky. Instead, they’ve tried to come up with an expansive view of the gambling devices statute.”
Stay tuned for the latest from Minnesota, Kentucky, and Capitol Hill right here on Poker News Daily.