Posted on 09/06/2005 8:52:24 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy
Greed is apparently infecting some of our best known American-based internet and computer comnpanies to the extent they may be becoming the enablers of fascism.
First we learned Microsoft was cooperating with Chinese authorities in suppressing words like "democracy" in Microsoft's new blogging software. Now we learn the once-trendy Yahoo may be also helping out the Beijing Apparatchiks in an even more insidious manner. According to Reporters Without Borders, they have been aiding the Chinese government in revealing the identities of dissidents!
The text of the verdict in the case of journalist Shi Tao - sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for "divulging state secrets abroad" - shows that Yahoo ! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. provided China's state security authorities with details that helped to identify and convict him, Reporters Without Borders said today.
"We already knew that Yahoo ! collaborates enthusiastically with the Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know it is a Chinese police informant as well," the press freedom organisation said.
"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," the organisation said. "But does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations ? How far will it go to please Beijing ?"
Reporters Without Borders added : "Information supplied by Yahoo ! led to the conviction of a good journalist who has paid dearly for trying to get the news out. It is one thing to turn a blind eye to the Chinese government's abuses and it is quite another thing to collaborate."
Translated into English by the Dui Hua Foundation (which works to document the cases of Chinese political prisoners), the verdict reveals that Yahoo ! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. provided the Chinese investigating organs with detailed information that apparently enabled them to link Shi's personal e-mail account (huoyan-1989@yahoo.com.cn) and the specific message containing information treated as a "state secret" to the IP address of his computer.
Whoa, if true, this is deeply abhorrent behavior for an American-based multi-national corporation. Reporters sans frontières continues further on:
Yahoo ! and Chinese censorship
For years Yahoo ! has allowed the Chinese version of its search engine to be censored. In 2002, Yahoo ! voluntarily signed the "Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the China Internet Industry", agreeing to abide by PRC censorship regulations. Searches deemed sensitive by the Chinese authorities such as "Taiwan independence" in Chinese into the Yahoo ! China search engine, retrieve only a limited and approved set of results.
For what it's worth, Pajamas Media is now looking into what role we should be playing in this and how we should react. One thing is certain: no matter how big we become we won't be signing the "Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the China Internet Industry."
Ay! Suggestions for good search engines?
Yang is amoral and ChiCom appeaser. Sad to say.
Gee....a reporter, the Chinese governemt, and Yahoo....talk about trying to pick the worst of three evils...
Yet Yahoo!!!! seems to get my nod as the worst of the bunch, as it's ACTIVELY HELPING the Chinese government crack down on discidents! What scum buckets!
Sadly, my ISP contracts with Yahoo!!!!! for all sorts of goodies, including e-mail. Perhaps it's time to find a new ISP....
The notion that profits justify anything is a cancer in conservatism. These are the sort of folks who would gladly sell the Communists rope, so long as someone else was to be hung first.
Is this any different from the French who collaborated with the Nazis?
Undermine the bastards, put 'em up on lampposts by their necks. Worked in Italy. Worked in Romania. Will work in China.
Enough of this crap. Enough diplomatic pretending.
Excuuuse me, but isn't the guy who founded Yahoo half Chinese? Hello!
"Is this any different from the French who collaborated with the Nazis?"
Not a lot, no.
How is this legal?
Slightly Off Topic and ON THE NET...
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=1174&cid=11&sid=60
"Do You Yahoo? Al-Qaida Does!"
Jeremy Reynalds - 9/7/2005
Cause politicians of both parties like the money from companies that like doing business with China.
Can't happen? U.S. corporations are encouraged to pay lobbyists to advocate for Red China in Washington, else their business interest in Red China would suffer, according to Bill Gertz of the Washington Times.
In the past google admited to censuring Second Amendment rights stuff. The last I noticed DU is a news source on google news and I believe that google refuses to include FR.
The overseas subsidiary that did this, Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. is a Chinese registered company and is operating under Chinese law. Of course, this is a legal shell game since Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) is effectively under the control of the American parent company.
There should be a way to close this loophole and keep American businesses from selling out American principles.
In many other types of unethical dealings; slave labor or bribery; for example, there are legal provisions for holding American companies accountable for the actions of their foreign subsidiaries. Flagrant human rights abuses should receive at least the same attention.
I went to opensecrets.org and yahoo is basically around 50/50 in donations to both parties. Do you know why companies/corporations split their donations 50/50? What's the point?
Just hedging their bets.
We should cease treating Red China as normal trade partner. It's not. China is a vile totalitarian state, not a budding democracy. By making it wealthy, we are only aiding that government in its repression of its people.
they ought to be required to isolate any earnings they get from doing so, to the chinese economy. no carry over into american dollars directly or indirectly. so yahoo china can get filthy rich if they must, ratting to the chinese authorities, but they should not be able to use one thin dime of that in america. we will not cash those ious.
yup and that is the proof. the answer should be that this money is de jure dirty and can not be allowed to purchase anything in america, and anything purchased with it can not be allowed to come into america.
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