Allegations Yahoo Collaborated With Chinese Government to Jail Journalist

[mandy]

Latest update:

Yahoo is asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a human rights organization that claims the Internet portal's cooperation with the Chinese government resulted in the torture and 10-year jail term of political dissident Wang Xiaoning. Xiaoning had used a Yahoo account to anonymously post to the Web materials relating to the Tiananmen Square massacre. Yahoo turned over identifying details for the account at the request of the Chinese government, which subsequently arrested Xiaoning...

Yahoo has taken center stage in the legal, moral and ethical debate surrounding the accommodations that many companies are making to China's government in order to do business there. The search giant claims a U.S. court has no jurisdiction in the case of a Chinese man who was jailed and allegedly tortured for political reasons after Yahoo turned over his identifying information...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/aP0qFhMb...urts.xhtml

[BellisimaJ.]

Yahoo is asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a human rights organization that claims the Internet portal's cooperation with the Chinese government resulted in the torture and 10-year jail term of political dissident Wang Xiaoning. Xiaoning had used a Yahoo account to anonymously post to the Web materials relating to the Tiananmen Square massacre. Yahoo turned over identifying details for the account at the request of the Chinese government, which subsequently arrested Xiaoning...

Bolding mine. You would think that an American company would wish to hold to American ideals. Apparently not-------they prefer to sell their integrity to the highest bidder. I hope that Americans boycott Yahoo. They richly deserve it.

[mandy]

Update: Yahoo defends its actions before US Congress:

Two top Yahoo Inc. officials on Tuesday defended their company's role in the jailing of a Chinese journalist but ran into withering congressional criticism over information Yahoo gave the Chinese government about the man's online activities.

"Yahoo claims that this is just one big misunderstanding. Let me be clear — this was no misunderstanding," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said as his panel's hearing got under way. "This was inexcusably negligent behavior at best, and deliberately deceptive behavior at worst."...

full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071107/ap_o...ress_yahoo

[Kristijntje]

A NYT Op-Ed piece:

For a company that ostensibly believes in the Internet’s liberating power, Yahoo has a gallingly backward understanding of the value of free expression.

The company helped Beijing’s state police uncover the Internet identities of two Chinese journalists, who were handed 10 years in prison for disseminating pro-democracy writings. Testifying before Congress last year about one case, Yahoo’s legal counsel said the company was unaware of the nature of the investigation. Did he miss the language about providing “state secrets to foreign entities” — a red flag for a political prosecution? ...

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/opinion/02sun2.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin