Chinese internet dilemmas - Updated
(Published 3 Nov 2007)
The coming week will be an important one for internet giant Yahoo. It stands accused of helping the Chinese government to identify a reporter sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets online.
Yahoo now face a lawsuit accusing them of 'aiding and abetting torture' as well as a US Congressional committee hearing at which CEO Jerry Yang is expected to face questions on the case.
China is an enticing prospect for internet firms. It's expected to overtake the US in the number of internet users by 2009. But the country's suppression of free speech and blocking of the internet is proving to be an ethical minefield for companies hoping to establish themselves there, such as Yahoo, Google and MSN.
Last month, a US Congress panel endorsed legislation to prevent American internet companies from cooperating with repressive regimes such as China. Meanwhile Yahoo (which no longer has a majority stake in Yahoo China after selling the firm to a Chinese company in 2005) says it's working "to develop a global code of conduct for operating in countries around the world, including China."
But what would an ethical code look like for companies operating in countries with such different levels of openness and free expression?
I spoke to Yan Sham-Shackleton, who writes Glutter, one of the most widely-read English-language blogs in China. She has first-hand experience of censorship, and says that foreign companies need to take responsibility for their actions in the country.
UPDATE 14/11: Yahoo has now settled this lawsuit out of court. Part of the deal is thought to include Yahoo agreeing to set up a fund to support other dissidents.
According to the NGO that brought the case, Yahoo decided to settle after the Congressional hearing last week, in which it was criticised as "at best inexcusably negligent" and at worst "deceptive" for not having given full details to the panel in their earlier probe into the jailing of Shi Tao.
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Comments
Following the link from this site to Glutter and then other links you begin to realise that freedoms we take for granted are yet to be won in many parts of the world.
It is obvious that western governments turn a blind eye to the suppression of Freedom of Speech in many countries as it is 'bad for business'.
What is somewhat depressing is that despite the many attempts of bloggers and internet campaigners,nothing really happens unless the governments use their financial clout to effect change - Money makes the world go round, the world go round ....
George, you should know that the word ‘Internet’ should start with a capital ‘I’. Aye?
There's a bit of debate on this,
according to that authoritative journalistic resource Wikipedia. The BBC news style guide apparently takes no position either, so I tend to agree with this writer, who makes a good case for why Wired Magazine ditched the capitalisation. I am willing to concede, however, that in making his argument he does use "lower case" as a verb...
I am comfortable in staying far enough behind the times to keep the capital letter, but might just experiment with doctorhackenbush.
George
The late Pope apparently once said something along the lines of "most people, unfortunately, have a price..." and "... there's no such thing as partial integrity"
Accepting that, as I do, I was still somewhat surprised by Google's censorship of it's services in China in 2006 and frankly, shocked by Yahoo's recent actions in China
Google and Yahoo and their competitors have always staunchly defend the freedom of internet users to post and say what they will (see below)
No matter how offensive to other members of society
Rightly, legal action etc will usually get some "offending" data removed but most...
"Freedom's" the thing
Yet, to get into the huge market that is China, the principle of freedom of "speech" and now, it seems, the physical freedom of people themselves, have been cast aside...
It was said of the fallen Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe that "Greater love hath no man, than he layed down his friends for his life"
How should we now amend that (amended) quote to reflect the morality of Google and Yahoo..?
Well, now that Google and Yahoo have nailed their true colours to the mast, maybe there should be censorship of the net imposed. Paedophilia, Hard-Core Pornography, Spam..?
it seems now, that the technology does exist to eliminate offensive and illegal material
So, maybe the "net" providors should be forced by either the US Govt or individual country legislators, to do so...