Foreign companies helped, initially rushing into this new security market the same way they had rushed into post-Soviet financial markets. Microsoft at one point altered its blogging software to accommodate the Great Firewall’s protocols. Yahoo agreed to sign a “public pledge on self-discipline,” ensuring that forbidden terms wouldn’t turn up in its searches. Cisco Systems, another U.S. company, sold hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment to China, including technology that blocked traffic to banned websites. When I wrote about these sales in 2005, a spokesman told me this was the “same
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