• Wired, Thursday, April 20, 2006 10:22 AM

For the third time documents reveal that Yahoo aided China in the capture of another so-called dissident, by turning over a draft e-mail to Chinese authorities in 2003. That's right, folks, the man didn't even send the e-mail, but apparently, thinking about it was enough to jail the man on charges of subversion, according to the verdict from his trial in 2003. Hong Kong-based Yahoo Holdings handed over the draft document, entitled "Declaration," which had been saved on the man's account, the group Reporters Without Borders said. A Yahoo spokesperson said the company was not familiar with the case. I can see how a PR flack might not be familiar with each individual case involving a massive company like Yahoo, but I can't see how she wouldn't be able to gather company information about it in a matter of seconds. Instead, she only offered this limp declaration: "We condemn punishment of any activity internationally recognized as free expression, whether that activity takes place in China or anywhere else in the world." Reporters Without Borders went on to say, in a statement, it has "long suspected that Yahoo is implicated in the arrest of most of the people we have been defending." Major U.S. tech companies Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco have all come under fire for their operations in China. Each has acquiesced to the request of the Chinese government that they censor their content and turn over data for authorities to review.

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