The great firewall of China..............

"Skype had a dilemma. The Internet telephony and messaging service wanted to enter China with TOM Online (TOMO ), a Beijing company controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Li's people told their Skype Technologies (EBAY ) partners that, to avoid problems with the Chinese leadership, they needed filters to screen out words in text messages deemed offensive by Beijing. No filtering, no service.

At first Skype executives resisted, says a source familiar with the venture. But after it became clear that Skype had no choice, the company relented: TOM and Skype now filter phrases such as "Falun Gong" and "Dalai Lama." Neither company would comment on the record. "