CYBERSPACE – The accusation made by Reporters Without Borders against internet search giant Yahoo! is strong: “It is one thing to turn a blind eye to Chinese government abuses but it is quite another thing to collaborate.”At issue is information provided to the Chinese government by Yahoo! which may well have led to the arrest and imprisonment of journalist Shi Tao, who wrote for daily business publication Dangdai Shang Bao (Contemporary Business News). That relationship ended in November 2004, when Shi began the legal process which ultimately resulted in a 10 year sentence in Changsha province on the grounds that he made released state secrets internationally via the internet. Shi unsuccessfully claimed that it was not mandatory that the information he distributed be kept secret.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Shi’s conviction required the government to be able to track the journalist’s IP address in order to link him to the released text, which warned Chinese journalists about possible danger and social unrest if specific dissidents returned to the country to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Court documents indicate that such proof was willingly provided by Yahoo!, allowing the Chinese government to connect Shi to the anonymously sent message.

In order to do business with China, the multinational Yahoo! has agreed to permit the Chinese government to enact and enforce certain content restrictions on search engine results. In 2003, the company invested $120 million in the purchase of 3721.com, a Chinese-owned search engine. Since then, it has invested what is believed to be nearly a billion dollars in Internet global trade giant, Alibaba.

“Yahoo! obviously complied with requests from the Chinese authorities to furnish information regarding an IP address that linked Shi Tao to materials posted online, and the company will yet again simply state that they just conform to the laws of the countries in which they operate,” RSF said.

Yahoo! Hong Kong is subject to the domestic legislation of the former British colony, which does not spell out the responsibilities of companies in sensitive situations such as this. But it is reportedly common practice for e-mail and internet service providers to transmit information to the police about their clients when demanded by a court order.
RSF said it had written to Yahoo! to alert it to the “ethical issues raised by its Chinese investments” but there had been no reply.