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August 25, 2007
Yahoo! Will Respond to Chinese Journalist's Lawsuit on Monday
Boing Boing: Yahoo to respond to lawsuit over jailed Chinese 'net dissidents:
Yahoo! acknowledged that it provided Chinese officials with identifying information of its Yahoo! service users that made these arbitrary arrests and long-term imprisonments possible, but the company claims that it had to provide the information in compliance with Chinese law. Sklar noted that “the language of China’s requests to Yahoo! make it clear that these individuals were being targeted for their exercise of free speech and free press rights, and not for any legitimate law enforcement reasons.” During Congressional hearings held in February 2006, Yahoo! also defended its actions by claiming that it was not aware of the purpose for which the information was requested. Recent information has surfaced, however, indicating that Yahoo! was, in fact, aware of the repressive purposes of the requests. On August 3, Tom Lantos (D-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced that Congress would investigate Yahoo!’s conflicting statements to determine whether the internet company lied under oath about what it knew during last year’s Congressional hearings.
Several preliminary procedural motions led up to Monday’s filing. One of these motions was an effort by Yahoo! to divide the case into multiple parts, which would have caused significant delays in reaching the merits of the case. The court denied Yahoo!’s motion, but did agree to seek the U.S. State Department’s views on potential foreign policy impacts of the case. Yahoo! also asked the court to grant a protective order of evidence to allow Yahoo! to keep major portions of its submissions secret.
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