Skype received censorship in China

Skype, a company famous for its internet-based communications service, has defended its Chinese counterpart to censor messages, saying they must comply with local laws.

The company admitted that its partner in the mainland, Tom.com, has edited the messages containing banned words such as "Falun Gong" or "Dalai Lama."

Skype is owned by Ebay, and Ebay chief executive Niklas Zennstrom, quoted by Financial Times: "Tom does the filtering, which everyone in the market does. That's the rule."

Skype is the latest technology company to be noted for censorship at the request of the Chinese government.

Companies like Google and Yahoo, along with Microsoft, are criticized for filtering content on their sites in China to please the government.

Even Yahoo was criticized for providing information to help authorities arrest two dissidents.

Mr. Zennstrom said compliance with Chinese law is no different from law compliance in the US or Germany, the company's two major markets.

" I may like or dislike business rules in England, Germany, or the US but if I do business there, I have to follow their laws. So is China ."