Yahoo sued over data on Chinese dissidents
A human-rights group filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Yahoo Inc. for allegedly providing information to the Chinese government that led to the persecution, torture and imprisonment of dissidents.
The World Organization for Human Rights USA filed the lawsuit on behalf of Wang Xiaoning, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for advocating Democratic reform in China in articles circulated on the Internet, and his wife, Yu Ling, who watched Beijing security officials barge into their home and arrest her husband of 27 years.
The suit seeks damages for Wang, Yu and others who have been arbitrarily detained, tortured or subjected to inhumane treatment at the hands of Chinese authorities because of information Yahoo allegedly provided the government. It also seeks Yahoo’s help in securing the release of these prisoners and a court order to prevent it from taking similar actions in the future.
“U.S. corporations doing business in places like China, that have highly repressive practices and commit human rights violations on a systemic basis, need to ask themselves a question: Are the actions I’m taking or the information I’m providing putting people at risk?” said Morton Sklar, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA.
American technology companies including Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. have drawn mounting criticism. At a congressional hearing in February, these companies acknowledged making compromises to do business in the world’s second-largest Internet market, which has at least 130 million users. Google is accused of blocking access to sites that the Chinese government deems sensitive. Cisco Systems has sold China equipment that authorities use to block access to such sites. Yahoo has come under fire for signing a pledge to abide by all censorship laws.
“Yahoo, as a commercial organ, has a duty to protect its customers’ privacy; this is the bottom line,” said Li Jian, a human rights activist based in Dalian, China. Li, whose website is often blocked by the government, added that “I am sure there are many more cases behind what has been exposed.”
Sklar said his organization targeted Yahoo because of the extent of evidence against the Sunnyvale, Calif., company. The Chinese courts cited Yahoo as being instrumental in the arrest and conviction of Wang, who distributed his political journals and articles by e-mail through a Yahoo message group and later over the Internet anonymously.
Yahoo’s Hong Kong subsidiary provided local police with information linking Wang to the e-mails and other pro-Democracy comments, the suit alleges.
On Sept. 1, 2002, 10 security police officers raided his home, seized computers and manuscripts and detained him without informing his family of the charges. He was held in a detention facility where he repeatedly was beaten and kicked and forced to confess to engaging in “anti-state” activities, the suit alleges. On Sept. 12, 2003, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“Jim Cullinan, Yahoo’s director of public affairs, said the company had not seen the lawsuit. But he said American companies doing business in China were required to comply with local law -- or else their employees would face civil or criminal penalties.
Cullinan said the Chinese authorities did not disclose to Yahoo why they were seeking certain information or even the nature of the underlying criminal investigation. He said Yahoo had no way of knowing whether the demand for information was related to a legitimate criminal investigation or would be used to persecute a political dissident.
“Yahoo is distressed that citizens in China have been imprisoned for expressing their political views online,” Cullinan said. “We call on the U.S. State Department to continue making this issue a top priority in bilateral and multilateral engagements with the Chinese government to the end result of securing the freedom of these dissidents.”
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Times staff writer Don Lee contributed to this report.
