Yahoo, MSN, kowtow to China
p2pnet news view | Freedom:- Yahoo China and MSN China have signed a code of conduct which commits them to looking after the interests of China, including acting as state censors.
“I can confirm that we signed the pact this week,” the Taipei Times has Yahoo China spokesman Dou Xiaohan saying.
“We’ve signed the pact but there is no press release on that,” said MSN China spokesman Feng Jinhu.
It’s a “self-discipline” pledge under which they promised to “safeguard state and public interests,” says a statement from the China Internet Society quoted in the story.
“The pact ‘encourages’ Internet firms to register the real names, addresses and other personal details of the bloggers, and then keep this information,” it says, going on:
“The firms also committed to delete any ‘illegal or bad messages,’ according to a copy of the pact posted on the society’s Web site.”
Yahoo, MSN and Google are at the top of the list of American companies which routinely comply with Chinese demands in the interests of maintaining cordial and fruitful business relationships.
Yahoo in particular has been singled out for allegedly releasing information to Chinese police which has led to cyber dissidents being jailed.
Among them are Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning, both imprisoned for 10 years.
The company is currently accused of aiding and abetting human rights abuses in China by supplying information which led to dissidents being imprisoned.
A lawsuit has been filed in a federal court in San Francisco by the World Organization for Human Rights on behalf of the wife of Wang Xiaoning, “a Yahoo user jailed in China for promoting democracy online,” says RTÉ News, going on:
The suit accuses Yahoo of helping Chinese officials track down her husband and of linking him to email and online comments.
Yahoo was referred to 10 times in the Chinese court verdict that declared Mr Wang guilty of incitement to subvert state power and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
In response, Yahoo said the dissidents ‘assumed the risk of harm when they chose to use Yahoo China email and group list services to engage in activity they knew violated Chinese law’.
Chinese bloggers using Microsoft Net services face restrictions on what they can write.
Bloggers on Microsoft’s MSN site in China find they’re unable to use words such as “freedom”, “democracy” and “demonstration” without being blocked, said the BBC, adding:
“Microsoft said the company abided by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates.”
US congressional investigators plan to look into whether or not Yahoo officials, “misrepresented the Internet company’s role in the arrest of a Chinese journalist sentenced to a decade in jail“.
China is having to deal with increased international attention with the Beijing Olympics slated to start in just under a year.
Meanwhile, it’s bidnes as usual for Y, G & MSN.
Also See:
Taipei Times – Yahoo, MSN admit to inking PRC deal to control bloggers, August 26, 2007
imprisoned for 10 years – Yahoo in new China dissident lawsuit, May 31, 2007
RTÉ News – Yahoo facing human rights lawsuit, August 28, 2007
BBC – Microsoft censors Chinese blogs, June 14, 2006
decade in jail – Congress to investigate Yahoo, August 7, 2007
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August 28th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
So, Like when will America and its corporations quit sucking China’s Big sweaty A.s.s. Hole???
Will amerikka ever get its balls back?