Yahoo cleared in Hong Kong
p2pnet.net news:- Chinese Yahoo user Shi Tao was jailed for 10 years after Yahoo handed detailed information on him to Chinese police.
“They’re a Hong Kong company,” said pro-democracy legislator and lawyer Albert Ho at the time. “Why do they have to comply with Chinese requests (for information)? This is the biggest question’.”
But Yahoo didn’t violate Hong Kong privacy laws, the Hong Kong privacy commissioner has ruled, according to Associated Press.
Yahoo, “obviously complied with requests from the Chinese authorities to furnish information regarding an IP address that linked Shi Tao to materials posted online, and the company will yet again simply state that they just conform to the laws of the countries in which they operate,” said Reporters Without Border when news of Shi Tao’s arrest surfaced.
“But does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations?”
Google ceo Eric Schmidt defended the company’s cooperation with Chinese censorship, “as he announced the creation of a Beijing research center and unveiled a Chinese-language brand name,” said Associated Press last year, going on:
“Google is trying to raise its profile in China after waiting until January to launch its Chinese-language site Google.cn. Activists have criticized the company for blocking searches for material about Taiwan, Tibet, democracy and other sensitive issues on the site.”
But, “We believe that the decision that we made to follow the law in China was absolutely the right one,” AP has Schmidt declaring.
Meanwhile, Yu Ling (upper right), the wife of Chinese Net dissident Wang Xiaoning, imprisoned for 10 years after distributing material by email and through Yahoo! Groups, plans to sue Yahoo US, “for allegedly helping to put her husband in jail in China”.
Also See:
jailed for 10 years – Yahoo Shi Tao scandal, March 31, 2006
Associated Press – Yahoo Inc. Cleared in Hong Kong Case, March 14, 2007
Reporters Without Border – Another cyberdissident imprisoned because of data provided by Yahoo, February 8, 2006
Associated Press – Google defends cooperation with China, April 12, 2006
Yu Ling – Jailed dissident’s wife to sue Yahoo, March 14, 2007
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