Yahoo, a leading internet company, has settled lawsuits brought against them in the case of two jailed Chinese dissidents, Shi Tao and Wang Xianoning, that Yahoo helped to land in prison. Yahoo helped the Chinese government to identify democracy dissents that used the internet to further their cause, including the two dissidents whose families they settled with today.
Yahoo has denied that they purposely helped the Chinese to find and jail the dissidents. However, under questioning before Congress, Yahoo’s Chief Executive Jerry Yang admitted that Yahoo had provided the information to the Chinese government. Yang blamed the incident on a bad translation of the government’s request. It was discovered that the translation originated at Yahoo’s Chinese offices and was done by native Chinese employees. For this reason Yang’s explanation has wrung hollow with several US Congressmen, including one who called Yang, and Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan, moral pygmies.
Obviously Yahoo hopes to correct the damage done by their actions by buying off the families of Shi Tao and Wang Xianoning. Both men were sentenced to 10 years in prison after Yahoo turned over their email messages to the Chinese. What is clear by Yahoo’s complicity in the jailing of the men and the settlement of the lawsuits is that the company is far more interested in making money in China than there are in protecting the privacy and rights of Yahoo users.
Boycott Yahoo. There are many other search engines and email providers that will not violate your privacy