THE INTERNATIONAL search engine and information provider, Yahoo!, helped the Chinese government clamp down on a Chinese journalist's freedom of speech.Journalist Shi Tao was arrested after posting material about a government crackdown on media and democracy activists on an overseas Web site. He's currently in jail serving a ten year sentence.
And now Yahoo! executives are accused of downplaying their actions during a presentation to Congress.
Should Yahoo! have worked with the Chinese government? The journalist in question violated their laws, so he should have been punished, right?
Or should Yahoo! have withheld information? Let the government do their own leg-work!
Should Yahoo! hold China, a Communist country, to different standards? If this was an American law-breaker, wouldn't you want Yahoo! to turn those people in?
Here in America, the government could have forced Yahoo! and other communications companies to reveal whatever information they have on people. It was part of the Patriot Act, which was enacted weeks after 9/11.
In 2004, a district court judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for Internet outlets to be forced to turn over user information.
1 comment:
I would want Yahoo to help in any way possible if this were a dangerous. However, Shi Tao was expressing his freedom of speech, which is also a right in China, so the government had no right to punish him. He was not intentionally being dangerous, even though the government may portray him as such. By helping the Chinese government, Yahoo has tarnished its image and implied that it believes freedom of speech to be unimportant.
That being said, I think the Chinese laws which restrict freedom of speech are completely unfair and intrusive. People have a right to know information no matter what country they are in, and the government is overstepping its rights by not allowing that. While the Chinese government is the most at fault, Yahoo should have let them find the information themselves instead of assisting them.
Kim Wood
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