A free speech group accused Yahoo of divulging to the Chinese government the e-mail and user name information of a man who wrote essays detailing local corruption. The man was later incarcerated. The
group, Reporters Without Borders, said Chinese court documents show that Yahoo helped authorities put away Li Zhi for 8 years for "inciting subversion." After discovering the court documents,
Reporters Without Borders demanded that the Internet firm release a list of all cyber-dissidents about whom it had given information to Chinese authorities. Yahoo did not comment on the allegations,
but the company has publicly admitted to handing over similar information to Beijing in the past, maintaining that it must comply with local law. The issue of censorship in China is a thorny one, and
Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and Cisco have all been asked to appear at a congressional hearing next week about the ethical responsibilities of U.S. Internet firms abroad. Microsoft has blocked certain
content from Chinese users, Google and Yahoo have agreed to filter search results, and Cisco has provided Chinese authorities with equipment used to filter information. Reporters Without Borders
expects similar disclosures to surface in the near future; to date, the free speech group has reported 49 cyber dissidents and 32 journalists imprisoned in China for criticizing authorities on the
Internet.
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