Yahoo! Invokes the Nürnberg Defense
Via Matthew Hoy, Yahoo! admits to passing along the user data that earned journalist Shi Tao 10 years in the clink, even while refusing to admit it did anything wrong. Yahoo! chief Jerry Yang non-explains his company’s actions thusly:
“We did not know what they wanted information for, we are not told what they look for, if they give us the proper documentation in a court order we give them things that satisfy local laws,” Yang told journalists
“I don’t like the outcome of what happened with this thing, we get a lot of these orders, but we have to comply with the law and that’s what we need to do.”
Just following orders, eh? Where have I heard that before?
September 11th, 2005 at 5:40 pm
This is, I think, one of those things where you don’t if you did the right thing until it plays out. It would be nice to know just what Yahoo knew before it released the information. Governments have legitimate reasons at times for getting user information, e.g., fraud, child p*rn, threats made and so on. If Yahoo knew that their information was to be used to silence political dissent then their actions are condemnable. I’m willing to believe that is possibly true since there has been an on and off discussion on the web as to whether it is preferable to deny internet service to nations with totalitarian governments or put up with the restrictions so that the inherent democracy of the internet can eventually work its magic. Both sides have very legitimate arguments to make and no one will know which side was correct until history proves out.
I wish we knew more.
September 11th, 2005 at 5:50 pm
Florida?
September 12th, 2005 at 9:09 am
[Irrelevant crap that was spammed to this thread and two others, and which, if repeated again, will get this user banned.]
September 12th, 2005 at 6:21 pm
So, X, are you going to organize a boycott of Yahoo sponsers over this? I’d do it but I’m too lazy. You’re one of those go-getter types, I can tell.
September 14th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
[...] Unfortunately I had to go to Yahoo! News to verify the company’s defense of the actions described in this previous post (essentially giving the Chinese government the info they needed to jail a dissenting journalist for 10 years), but you won’t have to, and I won’t supply the link (HT Hoy Story via Ace, who likens the company’s excuses to the Nuremberg Defense; bolds are mine): Yahoo’s Yang say hands tied in China Internet censorship case [...]