Yahoo Sued for Giving User Information to China

taoman1 wrote with news of a CNN article about a suit brought against Yahoo! for alleged aiding in human rights violations. The World Organization for Human Rights USA has filed suit against the search company for (so the suit claims) assisting in torture by revealing information that led to the arrest of dissidents. "The lawsuit cites federal laws that govern torture and other violations of international law. Plaintiffs included jailed dissident Wang Xiaoning and his wife, Yu Ling, who was visiting San Francisco this week as part of the group's campaign. Sklar said he knew of three other cases, but the dissidents were reluctant to join the complaint for fear of harm to their families living in China. Among those three dissidents is journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in jail."

Just visiting?

Plaintiffs included jailed dissident Wang Xiaoning and his wife, Yu Ling, who was visiting San Francisco this week as part of the group's campaign.

Something makes me think they're going to have a really shitty time when they get back to China.

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Concubine anyone?

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Before modding a post "off topic" (the parent to this), one may suggest looking up "CONCUBINE" somewhere to see that it is used in China to punish women in one way or another. Those who don't pay their taxes or have family issues MAY end up in a concubine. THIS is practice throughout the world, in Saudi and Turkey.. as well as other middle-eastern countries. How my comment is off topic as much as any above mine, is completely mind-blowing to me.

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she wont probably go back.

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Don't worry, they will by all means find support to stay in the USA due to "political oppression". Why do you think there is a lawsuit in the first place?

Yahoo can comply without screwing over dissenters

Yahoo could just respond to requests to provide names of people who use online forums for political dissent with a standard response like, "The culprit you are looking for is a Mr. Chin."

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Nah, it's Simon Jester :D

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In other news today, everybody with the family name Chin disappeared mysteriously today.

Authorities were quoted as saying, "there never was a Chin family name."

Matter

So when will The World Organization for Human Rights USA bring suit against George W for allowing torture in the detention camps?

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They won't - it'll be The World Organization for Human Rights China that does that.

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International law doesn't apply to the country with the biggest army.

Re:Matter

which would be china right?

(obligatory futurama)
in the korean war china realized the US soldiers had a preset kill limit, so they threw wave after wave of their own men at them until they stopped.

i forgot who it was who said it, but they were so buried in soldiers they weren't retreating, but "advancing in the other direction".

Re:Matter MOD Parent up

Very good point

Check http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html [un.org]

Where to begin??? Guantánamo Bay

USA is in violation of (at least):
Article 7.
            All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
            Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
            No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
            Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Cost of doing business

in the Ars article they said Yahoo claims that it is simply following local law and that it has no choice but to comply with legal requests from the Chinese government if it wants to keep doing business in that country. If Yahoo had existed during WWII would they have ratted out Jews to Hitler? But I guess it's okay as long as they can turn a dime.

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I was under the impression that some/many US companies supported the Nazi party prior and even during WWII.

Company Motto

Yahoo! needs to take a page from Google's "Do no evil"

I vote for Yahoo!'s new company slogan to be, "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil."

Seriously, what did they think the totalitarian Chinese government was going to do with this personal information? Create some targeted advertising?

Dear political dissident:
                      Have you heard of our new state-run work-camps? Your advanced computer skills are needed by the government. If you reply within the next 24 hours we'll promote you from "Wikipedia Article Revision" to "Pornography Censorship".
      Love,
            China

Inexcusable.

Re:Company Motto

Not quite.

From http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=17&articleId=9017 182&intsrc=hm_topic/ [computerworld.com]:

According to the lawsuit, the Chinese court specifically relied on evidence supplied by Yahoo to identify and convict Xiaoning. The judgment noted that Yahoo HK informed investigators that a mainland China-based e-mail account ([e-mail]) was used to set up Xiaoning's "aaabbbccc" Yahoo Group, and that the e-mail address [e-mail], which Xiaoning used to post e-mails to that Yahoo Group, was also a mainland China-based account maintained by Xiaoning. The Chinese court said Yahoo was instrumental in causing Xiaoning's arrest and criminal prosecution, according to the lawsuit.

Looks like Yahoo knew exactly what he was doing and led the authorities to his doorstep. It doesn't matter what doublespeak was used in the request, Yahoo had the facts in front of them.

As for Google, they have refused to give out personal information before. I am disappointed in their actions regarding censorship, but I don't see how you can compare it negatively to the torture and imprisonment of a citizen.

Issues with international companies

It's interesting how it's essentially impossible to do business without breaking laws now. If they hadn't given away this information, they would now be having the Chinese government talk about how Yahoo must hate freedom and doesn't respect the laws of their country.

I know a lot of people must be thinking "well, the decision is obvious, they should have followed the American laws instead since ours are more free", but remember that Yahoo actually has workers in China. If Yahoo didn't conform to Chinese laws, they would undoubtedly be hit with some kind of penalties, likely trickling down to their employees. This is probably not an issue they thought of when they opened offices in China.

Of course, Google has offices in China also. It'll be interesting to see what their solution is if the Chinese government gets sufficiently pissed off at them.

Re:Issues with international companies

Then Yahoo simply shouldn't be doing business in China. Yes, it's impossible to conduct ethical business in a country with a horrific human rights record [hrw.org]. I don't see why this should come as a surprise to anyone.

This is probably not an issue they thought of when they opened offices in China.

Very funny. Of course they know, they just don't give a shit. That's why they handed over this information. Anything for the sake of making money.

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Therefore, the defense rests.

That's Google you pillock.

Re:Your Honor, Our Mission Statement is "Do No Evi

That's Google's tag-line. I guess Yahoo's is "Do lots of evil!" that and "We're #2!" and/or "At Yahoo, we're so closely tied to AT&T we thought it our duty to turn in anything any government asks for, warrant optional!" :P

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yees, but these are two intrenched opponents, one has tons of money to throw at the case, the other has enough money and ethical convictions to see it through. there will be appeals going on for years.

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Well yes, it is a troll. But only a troll for the Chinese Intelligence Services! ;-)

Re:Just asking for clarification...

"Just want to know what the heck the standard should be... I guess it depends upon who you are..."

I can see why you're confused. You appear to be missing your moral compass.

The issue transcends government laws. Imprisoning and torturing someone for having a different point of view is despicable no matter what the law on one piece of dirt says. Assisting and participating in that incarceration makes one equally culpable. The managers and executives of Yahoo! went along with this crap just so they could avoid some legal hassles and, I suppose, make extra time for that golf game on Saturday.

That's why Yahoo sucks, and this lawsuit will hopefully succeed.

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I think the idea is to scare international companies with lawsuits to stop them rolling over to totalitarian governments. E.g. if you look at WWII, lots of companies complied with local laws when they used slave labour. But that didn't stop them getting sued a long time after the governments that made the laws got obliterated.

So if you're an American company doing business in China now, you need to weigh up the benefits of complying with morally invalid laws made by a tiny ruling clique to screw the rest of