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UK's Journalists Calling For Yahoo! Boycott

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the damned-if-do-damned-if-don't dept.

truthsearch writes "The UK's National Union of Journalists is calling for a boycott of Yahoo! because of its 'unethical behaviour' in China. Yahoo! has given details of at least three people to Chinese authorities who were subsequently imprisoned. 'The NUJ regards Yahoo!'s actions as a completely unacceptable endorsement of the Chinese authorities. As a result, the NUJ will be cancelling all Yahoo!-operated services and advising all members to boycott Yahoo! until the company changes its irresponsible and unethical policy.' Yahoo! sent a response to The Register."

7 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. boycott? You serious? by mmThe1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    boycott: an agreement usually among a particular segment of the population to reduce or stop the use and purchase of certain products or activities. (from here)

    Question 1: How can you reduce or stop something that's non-existent?

    Question 2: Agreement? Among journalists? Yeah, right.

    And yes, I Googled for that definition.

  2. Long Time Coming by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful


    You can rail against the PROC-friendly attitude of Yahoo! (and others) all you like, but the company simply isn't going to care until you hit them where it hurts...in the pocketbook.

    Kudos to the National Union of Journalists for putting their beliefs into action, but will this blow to the pocketbook be enough, or is Yahoo! even going to notice?

    --
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    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  3. Not too say democracy is a bad thing... by oahazmatt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But Yahoo!, along with Google and MSN, are business, first and foremost. None of these are meant to be champions of the people. All of these business want to do business in China, and currently the only way for them to do so is to abide by the laws established in China. Are those laws necessarily fair to the people? No. Is it the responsibility of Yahoo!, Google or MSN to bring about a revolution in China? No. A business is supposed to make money.

    However, there is some nudging to be made. Google alerts the user when results are being ommitted. Nothing peaks one's interest more than "There's something here they don't want you to see".

    --
    Those who believe the Internet is private,
    find their privates are on the Internet.
    1. Re:Not too say democracy is a bad thing... by Pendersempai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Since when does a profit motive exempt anyone, corporation or human, from morality? Would you say that there is no moral problem with what hit men do for a living?

  4. Stuck between a rock and a hard place by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I totally agree that corporations should not be sharing private information with governments. But it would be a lot easier to take the boycotters seriously if they had a sensible suggestion as to what Yahoo could possibly do about it. Just withdraw from the country? Let their Chinese management get arrested for breaking the law by not sharing the data?

    Are the boycotters also boycotting every other corporation that does business in China, or just the ones unlucky enough to have a high-profile demand made of them?

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    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  5. Re:Totally foolish boycott by truthsearch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Another case of liberals going overboard.

    If by "liberals" you mean people, and by "going overboard" you mean caring... then yes, many of us are guilty as charged. Good job stereotyping and trying to negate an opinion based on your pointless classification!

    --
    Developers: We can use your help.
  6. Hit the Company by Hitting the Bottom Line by reporter · · Score: 3, Insightful
    In a declaration in 2006 January, Reporters without Borders issued the following recommendation. No US company would be allowed to host e-mail servers within a repressive country*. So, if the authorities of a repressive country want personal information about the user of a US company's e-mail service, they would have to request it under a procedure supervised by US.

    Yahoo has, thus far, refused to move its servers from China to the USA.

    Both Microsoft and Google have, thus far, declined to locate their servers in China.

    In other words, Yahoo has the power to make substantive changes to its business model (to protect human rights) without significantly injuring its position in China. Unfortunately, the entire management of Yahoo, up to Jerry Yang (who is Chief Yahoo and has strong affinity to Chinese values), supports catering to Beijing.

    We, in the West, should hit Yahoo as hard as we can by hitting its bottom line. Until Yahoo rises to the decency of Google, which itself is no angel of goodness, we should financially pummel Yahoo by boycotting its services.