Bill Gates: Internet censorship just won't work

By Marissa Wells

According to InfoWorld, Microsoft founder Bill Gates told an audience at Stanford University that, "efforts by countries such as China to restrict the exchange of information on the Internet are ultimately doomed to failure" during a discussion entitled "Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Giving Back" on Tuesday. Microsoft has been criticized in the past for cooperating with China's attempts to censor its citizens, including the removal of Zhao Jing's blog for discussing a Chinese newspaper strike. Gates stated that the Internet cannot be controlled, and that, in the long run, free speech will win out. He believes that restricting free speech would curtail business operations, leaving governments with no choice but to eventually give up the fight.

Photograph by Miguel Villagran (c) 2008 Associated Press