Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Amnesty International Criticizes Yahoo for Revealing User Identity

Amnesty International is criticizing Yahoo for turning over the account information of a Chinese journalist that resulted in a ten-year prison sentence for him (the news of this broke in 2005). What Shi Tao did was send an email to the US about an internal Communist Party directive:

“The Communist Party directive had warned Chinese journalists of possible social unrest during the anniversary of the June 4 Movement (in memory of the Tiananmen crackdown), and directed them not to fuel it via media reports.

Imprisoned for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression, a right entrenched in international law and the Chinese Constitution, Shi Tao is considered a Prisoner of Conscience.

Companies must respect human rights, wherever they operate. Yahoo’s business ethics are becoming questionable due to its role in assisting the Chinese government to sentencing Shi Tao.”

Amnesty International urges those readers who have the freedom of expression to send a complaint email to Yahoo or call them, providing email addresses and customer support numbers.

Yahoo’s defense in this case, according to the Christian Science Monitor in September 2005, was that “Yahoo must ensure that its local country sites must operate within the [local] laws, regulations, and customs.”

[Via Boing Boing.]

Amnesty International Cri ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (0)

>> More posts

Advertisement