Warning: Yahoo! won't protect you.

According to Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders), Information supplied by Yahoo! helped Chinese journalist Shi Tao get 10 years in prison

The text of the verdict in the case of journalist Shi Tao – sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for “divulging state secrets abroad” – shows that Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. provided China’s state security authorities with details that helped to identify and convict him. It reveals that the company provided the Chinese investigating organs with detailed information that apparently enabled them to link Shi’s personal e-mail account (on the Chinese Yahoo! service at yahoo.com.cn) and the specific message containing information treated as a “state secret” to the IP address of his computer. More details from RSF here.

Shi Tao was jailed because he e-mailed sensitive political information to be posted on dissident websites hosted outside China. His case is a cautionary tale to bloggers around the world: If you are publicizing information and views that your government doesn't want exposed – even if you believe you have the right to do so under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – companies like Yahoo! will not shield you from your government.

Click here for the full text in both Chinese and English of the Shi Tao verdict (PDF document) courtesy of the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based non-governmental organization.

20 comments

  • LZ.Bin

    可怕的中国政府,
    It’s BAD!

  • LZ.Bin

    We Allways remember these men that hit us ,use country’s tools

    我们永远记住一些人,他们肆意以国家的名义,和“工具”残害自己的同胞,

  • LZ.Bin

    歼贼当道,冠冕堂皇,这是中崋民族的耻辱,

  • Alcofribas Nazier

    Tranposition to well known history will help clarify the debate :

    20 Years ago (supposing the WWW had existed at that time) Yahoo would have helped jail soviet dissidents and Solidarsnoc militants.

    60-odd years ago it may have tipped the nazis about jews on the run or French resistants.

    Business is businness isn’t it ? Or should it be different ?

  • Lynnette deTiege

    “Alcofribas Nazier:
    Tranposition to well known history will help clarify the debate :

    20 Years ago (supposing the WWW had existed at that time) Yahoo would have helped jail soviet dissidents and Solidarsnoc militants.

    60-odd years ago it may have tipped the nazis about jews on the run or French resistants.

    Business is businness isn’t it ? Or should it be different ?”

    “NYCmoderate:What is the difference, in substance not mechanics, between Yahoo turning this information over to the Chinese government and the US government retrieving similar information in this country either through court order or the PATRIOT act?
    … what should they do instead?”
    Sadly, Yahoo doesn’t care until their money is impacted. HOWEVER, in the US, Yahoo (like all corporations) 1) can go to court to fight what it views as unfair and 2) send lobbyists to make sure they can weaken or don’t have to comply with regulations any way.

    Is that too disillusioned of me?

  • Jim

    Yahoo is evil. Some imposter got into my jimmylowry98 account and changed my password along with other identifying information so I could not recover it. Here is what yahoo says I must do:
    Hello,

    Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Account Services.

    In order for us to assist you in the most efficient manner possible, we
    will need you to provide all of the information requested below.
    Without the proper verification information, we may be unable to provide
    further assistance.

    Please reply to this email and provide all of the following:

    1. Yahoo! ID

    2. Date of birth (mm-dd-yyyy)

    3. ZIP/Postal Code

    4. Country

    5. The alternate email address that is currently listed

    6. Your new desired alternate email address, if it needs to be updated
    (please note that this address cannot be a Yahoo! Mail address)

    7. Challenge Question and Secret Answer, if applicable.

    Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.

    Regards,

    Damian

    Yahoo! Customer Care

    Of course, I can’t answer these.

    So Damian, Why don’t you go execute a few more chinese citizens and also stick that yahoo account up your *** where the sun don’t shine.

  • ANONYMOUS

    “September 23rd, 2005 at 3:39 am Alcofribas Nazier:
    Tranposition to well known history will help clarify the debate :

    20 Years ago (supposing the WWW had existed at that time) Yahoo would have helped jail soviet dissidents and Solidarsnoc militants.

    60-odd years ago it may have tipped the nazis about jews on the run or French resistants.

    Business is businness isn’t it ? Or should it be different”

    I AGREE WITH YOU! YAHOO BACK IN NAZI GERMANY WOULD HAVE TURNED IN JEWS AND ANYONE WHO DIDN’T AGREE WITH THE NAZI GOVERNMENT TO BE MURDERED IN GAS CHAMBERS. THERE IS A MORAL STANDARD THAT IS UNIVERSAL REGARDLESS OF HUMAN LAWS. FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS A UNIVERSAL MORAL LAW THAT SUPERSEDES ALL HUMAN LAWS INCLUDING CHINESE LAWS. YAHOO AND ANY BUSINESS THAT DOESN’T ABIDE TO THESE UNIVERSAL TRUTHS HAVE NO VALID DEFENSE WHEN THEY GET PEOPLE WHO SPEAK THEIR MINDS IN JAIL. YAHOO, YOU HAVE NO MORAL STANDING IN GETTING PEOPLE JAILED FOR SPEAKING THEIR MINDS. YOU ARE A UNIVERSAL MORAL LAW BREAKER, AND YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED SINCE YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE HUMAN RACE. YAHOO, I SPEAK TO YOU AS AN ORGANIZATION, ARE YOU WILLING TO TURN IN PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN BE EXECUTED BY THE CHINESE GOVERMENT? WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO DRAW THE LINE BETWEEN SELLING YOUR SOUL TO MAKE MONEY AND UPHOLD BASIC HUMAN MORALS? YAHOO, YOU ARE A SHAME TO THE HUMAN RACE.

  • Thank You for your source. Keep working!

  • […] What was interesting for me was how the other search engines caved and handed over the data. I was interviewing Bradley Horowitz of Yahoo! the other night for a Podleaders.com podcast and, in the context of Yahoo! having previously provided information to the Chinese Government which resulted in a Chinese journalist being jailed for 10 years, I specifically asked him: If this had happened in the US would Yahoo! have fought the government request in the courts? […]

  • […] The other online giants, Microsoft and Yahoo, have been criticised for their stance on not only search results but also bloggers (such as myself) who have either been using their blog or web-hosting services. In one case a journalist was identified to Chinese authorities by Yahoo by linking his email account to the IP address of his personal computer. In another Microsoft pulled a Chinese blog that was critical of the government. What does Google and search results have to do with bloggers, Microsoft or Yahoo? Much of China’s upper and middle class, or more importantly students, intellectuals, artists and the ‘educated’ classes, have access to and use the internet to get their news and information. Google (also from first link) justifies restricting their access to that news and information by saying: Google users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn’t very good. […] Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world’s population, however, does so far more severely. […]

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