According to an article published by the Agency France-Presse (AFP) published on Yahoo, the Chinese Government has extended its censorship internet to Bing.com, Live.com, Hotmail.com, three sites owned by Microsoft, located in the United States.

AFP said that censorship of the three sites mentioned above follows the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and that access to sites has been limited this last Thursday. Kevin Kutz, Director of public affairs at Microsoft, told AFP: "Microsoft is committed to help the free dissemination of information and is committed to be the more transparent that is." Other sites censored by the Asian nation include Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Opera and Wordpress.

This new on the increase in censorship in China has been published on the homepage of Yahoo late last Thursday. A similar censorship took place in the United States. In Minnesota, the Department of Public Safety s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division sent a letter to the 11 biggest Internet providers (ISP) asking them to block 200 sites of gambling at the border of the State. 200 sites include as many poker sites of sports betting sites. In addition, some of the named sites don't already accept US players like Everest Poker, one of the official sponsors of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2009.
The ISP has immediately reacted to the letter by a civil suit on behalf of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) against John Willems in his capacity of Director of Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division. The letter sent to the ISP was based on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for non-compliance.

The President of iMEGA Joe Brennan, told the media: I find it well ironic that the Yahoo home page dealt with the censorship in China while the same principle occurs in the United States. Here, the central Government decided that people have the right to consult or not on the Internet." In addition to Everest Poker, other sites are in danger and do not accept US players such as BetFred, Betway, CD Poker, GNUF, Hollywood Poker, Noble Poker, Titan Poker, Ladbrokes and PartyGaming. The last two are negotiable on the London Stock Exchange.

Brennan added: what is happening currently relatively to the online world is not democratic. "You have the Government that decides what content is legal and what content is not even if the law does not allow." The iMEGA defended himself by saying that the Wire Act does not apply to the ISP and does not, in essence, gambling on the Internet. In addition, the Wire Act applies at the time only to companies providing telephony.

iMEGA intends to call a motion to block access to several websites including Poker Stars and Ultimate Bet. Brennan adds to this subject: "they cannot cite Bill to make illegal gambling in Kentucky. Instead, they try to tamper with the status of the gambling online."