p2pnet - rss feed: Yahoo Shi Tao scandal
p2p news / p2pnet: Chinese Yahoo user Shi Tao was jailed after the company handed over detailed information on him, say reports.
Pro-democracy legislator and lawyer Albert Ho, “showed journalists a copy of the verdict issued by a court in the central Chinese province of Hunan,” says Political Gateway.
“The document said: ‘Yahoo Hong Kong Holdings provided materials that confirmed the user’s information.’ It also gave the IP (Internet Protocol) address of Shi’s computer and his work phone number and address.”
Hong Kong’s privacy commission has now received a complaint from Ho alleging Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd, “provided evidence to convict a Chinese reporter sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets,” says the Associated Press, going on:
“Ho, who is also a lawyer, said, ‘It’s very clear from the judgment that Yahoo Hong Kong provided the details. They’re a Hong Kong company. Why do they have to comply with Chinese requests (for information)? This is the biggest question’.”
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?”
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, “defended the Internet search engine’s cooperation with Chinese censorship of the Web, saying it was necessary to reach out to new users,” says Agence France-Presse, quoted by telecomasia.
“We have to think of a way in which the Internet phenomenon can continue to grow and reach more users and at the same time comply with local laws,” the story has him saying.
Other large corporations, such as Google and Microsoft which similarly cooperate with China, also use the lame excuse that they’re merely trying to open the country to free speech to cover purely commercial considerations.
Also See:
Political Gateway - Yahoo threatened with court action over jailed Chinese journalist, March 31, 2006
Associated Press - Hong Kong lawmaker says Yahoo Hong Kong helped China convict reporter, March 31, 2006
arrest surfaced - Yahoo: 2nd China ‘jail’ scandal, February 9, 2006
telecomasia - Yahoo’s Yang defends China censorship, March 29, 2006
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March 31st, 2006 at 5:13 pm
“We have to think of a way in which the Internet phenomenon can continue to grow and reach more users and at the same time comply with local laws,”
The fucking Yahoo idiots don’t realize users will STAY AWAY from them with people going to jail for 10 years as a result of their so-called cooperation.
April 1st, 2006 at 4:11 am
Idots is the key word here. I don’t use Yahoo or Google or Msn any more. Perhaps all freedom loving people will abandon the idots.
April 1st, 2006 at 6:13 am
THANK GOD Yahoo wasnt around in the early ’40s.
I bet the a-holes would respect and respond [before the ink was dry] Gestapo warrants too.
Ya, I can see it now…. ***Yahoo Dachau Personals Ads*** , or ***KGB Maps!!***.
What a load of turds, Yahoo. Somebody needs to grab that BIG silver handle on the side of the internet and jerk it down… flushing yahoo fecal matter down the big internet toilet.
I just send out a mass email to my office staff that Yahoo Search Bar is now prohibited in our 4k plus employee business/agency.
April 1st, 2006 at 6:20 am
Wasn’t this the same group of idiots that about a few years ago, heavily sensored the German Yahoo of any 3rd Reich reference - even above and beyond Germany’s own statutes, bringing sensorship to a new high there. Hmmmmmm, yes. I believe it was them.