Microsft has been hammered by human rights activists around the world for closing a Chinese user's weblog on the MSN Spaces service.

The blogger, Zhao Jing, had reportedly been critical of the Chinese government and therefore was "blocked to help ensure the service complies with local laws in China", said Microsoft's public relations agency.

In an interview with IDG News in the United States, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, "We have an obligation in all the countries where we do business to abide by the laws and the government decrees in those countries. We do here, we do in Europe; we also do in places like China. And anybody can choose not to do business in any country. We all have that option."

In the last year, companies like Yahoo! and Cisco have also come under scrutiny by human rights advocates outside of China for working too closely with Chinese government authorities.