STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's business news starts with Web companies trying to set standards for themselves.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: They put together a new code for companies that do business in China and other places where governments interfere in the media. Yahoo, Google and Microsoft say they've agreed on a set of principles on what to do when governments demand information about users or block access to Web sites. These companies have come under fire for activities in China. Yahoo was criticized for giving a user's information to Chinese police who then threw him in jail.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Now, we do not know what is going to be in this new code, and so we do not yet know if it would have actually changed the outcome of that particular famous case in China.
In letters to lawmakers, Yahoo, Google and Microsoft say they've agreed on a set of principles on what to do when governments demand information about users or block access to Web sites. The code is for U.S. Internet companies that do business in China and other places where governments interfere with the media.