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Yahoo Defends Itself On China Allegations

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the good-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder dept.

Vitaly Friedman writes "Yahoo defends its policies in China as doing more good than harm, even as multiple dissidents have been jailed based on Yahoo Mail evidence. From the article: 'Yahoo continues to defend itself against charges that its Chinese operations have been responsible for the jailing of multiple dissidents. Multiple reports have surfaced which tie Yahoo Mail to various Chinese court cases that have ended in imprisonment for writers with politically unpopular opinions.'"

6 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Private companies are not David. by RealityThreek · · Score: 3, Informative
    Yahoo CEO Terry Semel ... went on to say that Yahoo cannot change Chinese policy and that it needs help from the US government to do so.
    He is completely right here. We are expecting private companies to fight a battle that Chinese citizens and/or the US government should be fighting. Yahoo has to play by the rules China sets up and it is absurd for any of us to expect otherwise. Their only other choice is to go home.
    --
    :wq
  2. Mod parent down. by RealityThreek · · Score: 1, Informative

    Read your quote again. Yahoo is saying that they cannot change Chinese policy. It is ridiculous that we expect a company to force the Chinese government to change. This is the dominion of national governments and the UN, not private industry.

    --
    :wq
  3. Here's a ranking of prisoners per capita by jfern · · Score: 3, Informative

    Guess which country is a solid #1 for prisoners per capita?

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_pri_per_ca p

  4. Re:Why is this news? by Distinguished+Hero · · Score: 2, Informative

    To clarify, the annexation of Czechoslovakia referred to the annexation thereof by Nazi Germany, and "The Third Reich" = Nazi Germany. Forgive me for being condescending, but I simply do not have much faith in the capacity of people with mod points to know or understand these things.

    --
    Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
  5. Godwin's law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    You just invoked Godwin's Law... discussion is over ;)

  6. Boycott Yahoo says NYT's Kristoff by forgoodmeasure · · Score: 3, Informative

    In an opinion piece on 19 Feb 2006, Kristoff of the New York Times all but called for a boycott on Yahoo. He thought that Google got a bum rap, Cisco and Microsoft were sleazy (but nothing like Yahoo), and that Yahoo was a national disgrace.

    Kristoff: "...nobody should touch Yahoo until it provides financially for the families of the three men it helped lock up and establishes annual fellowships in their names to bring Web journalists to America on study programs."

    I think Kristoff's suggestion sounds doable.

    Pay only link: http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F6 0815F63B5A0C7A8DDDAB0894DE404482&n=Top%2FOpinion%2 FEditorials%20and%20Op-Ed%2FOp-Ed%2FColumnists%2FN icholas%20D%20Kristof

    The website that coordinates the Yahoo boycott follows:
    http://www.booyahoo.com/

    Booyahoo has a link which details some of the alternatives to Yahoo services (hotmail, etc.) Some Slashdot users may want to help flesh it out.

    Wikipedia lists some of the Yahoo owned sites and services (to avoid?):
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!