Yahoo Allegedly Sells Reporter Out to Chinese Authorities

truckaxle writes "Yahoo! has been accused, again, of providing information to Chinese authorities that resulted in the imprisonment of a Chinese journalist. Yahoo! apparently provided Chinese police with internet activity information in a case that resulted in the arrest of Li Zhi. His crime - trying to join the dissident China Democracy Party. Yahoo! says it simply responds to requests from the authorities and was just complying to local laws. A Reporters Without Borders post reported that 'Yahoo! certainly knew it was helping to arrest political dissidents and journalists, not just ordinary criminals'."

Comments

Not what America used to be about

[MikeRT]

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."

--Samuel Adams

Yahoo is better than IBM in 1939 in shades and degree, not principle. There is nothing so craven as a man or men who value profit and wealth greater than liberty.

Who wants to take a bet that Reps. Lantos and Smith will have a field day with this? Btw, they are the real deal as they were in the minority that voted against renewing MFN for China the last time it came up, in 1999.

Re:Not what America used to be about

[Anonymous Coward]

An excellent attempt at putting words in my post, but alas, it is water upon which you stand. As pointed out below you have fallen into a place where you analogy is quite the opposite of apropos. Instead, I will make my previous argument even simpler since you seem to be immune to subtlies and inferences of a higher sort.

To wit: It is right and proper to express chagrin at the thought that other people may well place the value of money and goods above that of the wellbeing of their fellow human. This debate of where to place the point of balance between the forces behind such feelings and actions has gone on for centuries and millennia and quite probably continue to do so until the end of mankind as we know it. However, no matter strongly you personally may feel that others have been wronged through the actions of an intermediary standing between a Citizen and their State, action against the intermediary is misplaced at best and injurious to other Citizens at worst. For what we have here is a situation which is quite complex no matter how simple it may appear to be on the surface.

Instead, were it I calling for action, I would suggest that it is both the Citizen and the State which needs to be changed. As pointed out by other scholars in the policital and economic realms, the State, even a Toltaliarian State, is beholden to its Citizens for its continued existance. Therefore, it is held that to change the mind of the Citizen is to change the mind of the State. Of couse changing the mind of the Citizens can be a daunting task, especially if they are set at perpetuating the State which is harming them.

Re:Ordinary Criminals?

[Rude Turnip]

"Maybe we should take a step back and realise our beliefs aren't everyone's elses."

Do you think the guy that got arrested in China shares the beliefs of the government there?

On a related note, is there an easy way to download all my Yahoo! emails (going back to 1998 I think) so that I may cut loose from them once and for all? Sooner or later, Yahoo! will be complicit in the murder of a Chinese citizen, if they aren't already.

over money???

[slackaddict]

I know that I'm totally being an idealist by saying this, but when are people going to stop selling out their brothers and sisters for a few dollars? Is the advertising revenue enough to counter the bad will/karma/fortune/juju? I'm a very firm believer in "reaping what you sow" and it gives me a sick feeling when I keep reading stories about companies repeatedly selling out journalists, demonstrators, activists, students and censoring the speech of others just to make some money. Unfortunately, as we have seen, even the beloved Google has sold out. Is there noone who will stand up to this?!??!?

Net zero.

[Raven42rac]

To me, they're netting zero, they're opening things up, but helping an extremely repressive regime keep a stranglehold on power. I don't know how the heads of these companies sleep at night. The great firewall, yahoo helping them jail dissidents, google blocking things. This could be us in a few years.

Slippery slope

[HangingChad]

'Yahoo! certainly knew it was helping to arrest political dissidents and journalists, not just ordinary criminals'.

Yahoo certainly would have discovered that in the course of collecting the information. This begs the question of how low US based corporations will stoop in accommodating the oppressive practices of foreign countries. We already know how low they'll stoop in accommodating the oppressive practices of our own government...er, well, at least we know some of it. I don't think we can expect corporations to respect the same type of moral compass an individual might use. Still there has to be a line somewhere in the sand that says this far and no farther. Otherwise the request will be for data that ends up getting a lot of people killed. Who knows, that may have already happened as well! No easy answers here.

So, I'm an IT consultant and I've worked with Russian customers. The KGB calls up and wants information about my clients. What do I do? Personally, I tell them to go stuff it. Knowing I won't be able to work in Russia ever again. But that's just me. Yahoo might have a different perspective.

Re:Ordinary Criminals?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is not only the right, but the RESPONSIBILITY of every Freedom and Liberty loving person to hold any and all governments accountable for thier actions, thier laws, and the way they govern!

Hehe, the freedom lovers in the US only intervene once they can make money of it. Don't be so naive.

Re:Don't use Yahoo!

[aussie_a]

I browse at 0 and mod anything that has a moderation (including underrated and overrated) +1 and moderate ACs -6. This way I get to read every post (regardless of moderation) except ACs (again regardless of moderation). No more do I see GNAA posts, and while I might occasionally get the occasional race troll (their post has nothing to do with the topic and is normally one of the first posts), a foe rating (which get modded to -6) fixes that.

Just an idea if you want to read quality posts.

prison

[Jacek Poplawski]

Guys, we are talking about putting journalist in the PRISON.

And you are making funny comments.

I know that it is very fun to see how people dies on your tv screen when you are drinking beer and eating chips, but it's happen for real. People are thrown in prison for their words. People are being killed. And you are making jokes about them.

Yahoo is just evil.
Google is also evil, just less.

There is no free speech in this world - you can't talk about scientology (comment has been removed by Slashdot administrator), you can't make cartoons about Mohammed, Moses or any Christian saints, liberalism is dying.

And you think that's funny.

Re:Don't use Yahoo!

[MelvinSmalls]

Freedom of speech gives you the right to go into a public area crowded with US soldiers, stand up in the front and call them all baby killers. What do you think the outcome of that would be? What do you think the outcome would be if you exercised your right to go to Watts with a sign that says "I hate ni**ers"?.

It has nothing to do with morality. With freedom comes responsibility. Unless you are a fool, you can't be at all surprised when an act deliberately designed to piss people off, pisses them off. Especially, ESPECIALLY, when said pissing off involves religion or race.

Its not a double standard, its common reality based sense.