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Yahoo: We Support Freedom of Speech

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

June 11, 2007, 11:45 AM

Yahoo criticized the Chinese government on Monday, saying it shouldn't curtail its citizens' rights to free speech. The statement came just one day after the mother of jailed Chinese journalist Shi Tao announced she sued the company in U.S. District Court. Yahoo, along with its Chinese partner Alibaba, has been accused of leaking the information that led to Shi's arrest.

Human rights groups have criticized companies such as Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, which have all been accused of either kowtowing to questionable Internet restrictions or providing governments with information that have led to arrests and imprisonment. However, the companies have defended their actions, saying they must follow Chinese law or it would put employees at risk of legal action.

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By Citizen

edited Sep 20, 2007 - 4:48 PM

Freedom of Speech is up for sale on eBay. It's listed as an Antique, and the opening bid is a buck 'o five.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/e...m&item=270168069688

Score: 0

By Scotch Moose

posted Jun 12, 2007 - 11:06 AM

I see your lips moving but you are not saying anything.

Did anyone expect them to say they support censorship and jail time for expressing dissent? It's one thing to say you support free speech, but it's another to refuse to do business with countries that do not. Principles that are limited by price are not really principles.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

edited Jun 12, 2007 - 2:22 PM

Respect for the principles of others is always nice though...

China is facing cultural genocide. They are doing everything they can to stop it. The fact that a few narrow-minded Americans can't see that doesn't bother them one bit. They'll continue to do what they think needs to be done, and as far as I am concerned, we should let them until such measures threaten ours.

Score: 0

By Dsfargeg

posted Jun 11, 2007 - 1:03 PM

It's sad that they're only doing this now to look good, now that someone puts them under pressure.
They wouldn't give a damn otherwise, as long as they can make lots of money.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

edited Jun 11, 2007 - 12:01 PM

So they're accused of providing private data to China, and then turn around and say how bad Censorship is?

Interesting. So in other words, privacy isn't an issue, but censorship is.

Cute, guys. Of course, we already knew privacy wasn't an issue for the likes of MSN and Yahoo, who caved when even the US gov when asked for their logs without so much as a sniff.

Yahoo supports whatever gets them the most market share. If they'd just be honest about it, I could respect them. This, however, is laughable.

Score: 0

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