Capitalism, torchbearer of liberty Yahoo has signed the Chinese government’s “Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the China Internet Industry,” and as a result the Chinese-language version of Yahoo will no longer contain information that might “jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability, contravene laws and regulations and spread superstition and obscenity.”

Note that Yahoo is a U.S.-based company, and that tens of millions of Chinese-speaking people live outside mainland China. Tough noogies for them; if they want their Yahoo in Chinese, a Beijing-censored version will be all that’s available.

Right-leaning blogger John Weidner thinks a boycott of Yahoo is in order. Left-leaning blogger Jeff Cooper is inclined to agree. Good for both of them. The dirty business of Western corporations helping to enforce censorship and tyranny—often avidly competing for the contracts to do so—is a subject on which “right-wing” and “left-wing” people ought to be able to make a lot of common cause.

Of course, thinking along these lines, one is inescapably reminded of the endless ritual invocations of freedom and democracy from the chatterboxes of Fox News, a company run by a wizened gargoyle whose willingness to accommodate Beijing’s every desire approaches levels normally seen only among professional submissives. But remember, it’s liberals who are the enemies of freedom. Of course. [02:30 PM]