The Chinese government is backing off of its efforts to crack down on blogging. The country currently has a real-name law in place, requiring bloggers to use their real names. As many bloggers know, the potential for a degree of anonymity is one of the great things about blogging, and a lot of people post stuff on the internet they wouldn't want up there with their own names attached to. The Chinese government is concerned about the Internet because of its potential for facilitating pornography and anti-government ideas.

It's exciting to see evidence of the huge power that bloggers have for changing the world and the way people look at things. Being seen as a threat by a repressive regime is one of the highest forms of flattery, and this news story made me prouder than ever to be a blogger.

I can only hope that corporate America will stand up for free speech in China. Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google have all, to varying degrees, aided the Chinese government in its efforts to crack down on free speech. While I can understand the difficulties that these companies face in dealing with these issues, as American companies, I believe they ought to support one of the most important rights we as Americans have: free speech.

Let me first make my stance completely clear. As a member of the proud, yet possibly coarse foundation of American society I wish to make an open declaration based on my First Amendment right of free speech: Don Imus has made himself a broadcast journalistic wimp of the highest order.

I DO NOT condone the words that Imus chose to spew in regard to a specific class of athlete, but I do support his right to open his mouth and forcefully insert his own foot. But somewhere along the line Imus must have missed the memo which clearly explained that it's one thing to denigrate a class of athletes with whom you do not associate and who are in no position to immediately refute you and it's a completely different thing to tell someone like Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) CEO Rex Tillerson to sit down and shut up. (Umm, yeah I blogged that).

I could end this rant right here and consider myself fulfilled in chastising Mr. Imus but I really haven't brought this full circle yet. It's not enough that I simply rake him over the coals for his poor choice of wording. For me, there's yet a larger issue.

As corporations grow into multinationals, they have to learn to play in ball in international settings that may have their own set of rules. It's a tricky game and public opinion is the only referee.

Yahoo! learned how running afoul of those different rules could hurt it at home when stories surfaced about Yahoo! giving information to Chinese government officials that helped it jail dissidents.

On a server in the US someone can mock the president or the government all they want and only worry that they will upset their peers. But abroad, some governments seem to think humility and criticism aren't worthy qualities. Chinese officials sit in front of computers monitoring any movement on keyword searches on the terms 'freedom' and 'democracy.'

What's Yahoo! to do? Ignore international markets while others worm their way in, break the laws of the country, or resist and get possibly get kicked out?

Yahoo! chose to get into the second-biggest Internet market in the world and followed its laws. But back in the US people got ticked, and the Internet buzzed with outrage to see a company they use on a daily basis roll over and give up the data.

Now Yahoo! is going to the US government to ask for help to figure out how to dance this delicate dance without tripping.