Leading IT firms drew flak at a four day United Nations forum on Internet governance for colluding with Chinese authorities in exchange for market access, AFP reported. The forum, held in Greece, is billed as a first-ever attempt to encourage hard talk between states, lawmakers, companies and users. Among other controversies, Cisco Systems has been accused by Reporters Without Borders of selling technology to Chinese police that allows for the monitoring of dissidents, Yahoo! has been criticised for disclosing the identity of a journalist leading to his subsequent arrest, and Google is under fire for agreeing to censor results on its search engine in China. The companies responded that their operations in China benefit millions of Internet users by giving them access to information. "I don't accept the accusation that we're colluding, I think we are maximising the access to information for users," Microsoft senior policy counsel Fred Tipson said. A Chinese delegate said there were "no restrictions at all" on the flow of information in China, drawing boos from the audience.
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