Amnesty attacks Yahoo!, Microsoft & Google on China policies

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 20 July 2006 18:37

IT Industry - Strategy

Amnesty International has released a report in which it shames Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google by juxtaposing statements about their corporate values with details of how they acted contrary to these values in assisting the Chinese authorities to track down dissidents using their respective networks.
Amnesty has accused them of "violated their stated corporate values and policies in pursuit of the potentially lucrative Chinese market." To coincide with the report Amnesty has launched www.irrepressible.info, a new online campaign championing 'free speech and continuing Amnesty's fight against Internet censorship.

"We have to guard against the creation of two Internets - one for expression and one for repression," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "It's up to citizens worldwide to keep governments and corporations accountable."

The report, "Undermining Freedom of Expression in China" quotes Yahoo's corporate values statement: "We believe the Internet is built on openness, from information access to creative expression. We are committed to providing individuals with easy access to information and opportunities to openly communicate and exchange views and opinions."

Yet in China, according to Amnesty, Yahoo! handed over private information that led to the imprisonment of two journalists, Shi Tao and Li Zhi. Yahoo!, Amnesty notes, has also voluntarily signed China's "Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry," agreeing to censor and deny access to information.

Microsoft, Amnesty notes, maintains that it has "worked hard to make Microsoft a values-driven company that maintains the highest standards of professional conduct, meets or exceeds the ethical and legal expectations of countries where we do business and seeks to enable people throughout the world to realize their full potential."

Yet, in China, Microsoft shut down the blog of New York Times researcher Zhao Jing at the government's request. "The company also obeys directions from the Chinese authorities to limit use of certain terms - like 'democracy' and 'human rights' - on MSN Spaces," Amnesty says.

Amnesty quotes Google chairman and CEO, Eric Schmidt, saying: "The prize is a world in which every human being starts life with the same access to information, the same opportunities to learn and the same power to communicate. I believe that is worth fighting for."

Yet, in China, Google rolled over for the Chines Authorities and launched a censored version of its international search engine.

Amnesty calls on all the companies to be transparent about their dealings with the Chinese authorities and to reveal details of agreements and Web filtering arrangements. It has asked them "to publicly state their principled opposition to implementing requests that flout human rights standards and to call for the release of 'cyber-dissidents," and "to exhaust all judicial processes and appeals before complying with government requests with human rights implications, such as providing e-mail account details."