Yahoo, among other high-tech companies have been facilitating political repression in China. I've always been a very strong believer in capitalism being the way to move countries into freedom, but in this case I really believe that Yahoo is letting money overwhelm what is right.
What to do though? I doubt that legislation as Boot suggests would really work. Unfortunately, the ability to force these companies to be good world citizens through economics won't be very effective. Cisco for one doesn't deal with individuals, they deal primarily with large companies. Yahoo could be battered, but there isn't much likelihood that that will happen, since the fate of those like Shi are pretty much ignored by the MSM and most of the world.
Shi, the victim of Yahoo's shameful behavior, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for "illegally sending state secrets abroad." Shi was a reporter for a Chinese newspaper, Contemporary Business News. His crime consisted of e-mailing to a New York-based website information about a supposedly secret directive his newspaper had received from the state propaganda department telling it how to cover the 15th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The security services were able to track him down thanks to information helpfully provided by Yahoo's Hong Kong affiliate, whose e-mail service Shi used.Yahoo isn't alone.
Yahoo, Google, MSN and other Web search engines have agreed to block searches in China involving words such as "Tibetan independence" or "human rights." Bloggers can't post messages involving "democracy" or other "dangerous" concepts. Rupert Murdoch's Star TV has agreed not to carry BBC news or other information that the Chinese government might not like. Cisco has sold Beijing thousands of routers programmed to monitor Internet usage and flag for the secret police any "subversive" sentiments.I understand fully that these companies have a base interest to make money for there stock holders, but that doesn't mean I need approve of their use of there technology to continue repression.
What to do though? I doubt that legislation as Boot suggests would really work. Unfortunately, the ability to force these companies to be good world citizens through economics won't be very effective. Cisco for one doesn't deal with individuals, they deal primarily with large companies. Yahoo could be battered, but there isn't much likelihood that that will happen, since the fate of those like Shi are pretty much ignored by the MSM and most of the world.
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