Yahoo's Not, Of Course, Alone In China

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November 9, 2007

Yahoo's Not, Of Course, Alone In China

Business professor Peter Navarro argues "Yahoo isn't the only villain" in the LA Times:

"Which company has committed the greater evil? Yahoo Inc. helped send a reporter to prison by revealing his identity to the Chinese government. Cisco Systems Inc. helps send thousands of Chinese dissidents to prison by selling sophisticated Internet surveillance technology to China.

...

"For ratting out Shi, Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang has been dragged before Congress, called a 'moral pygmy' and forced to issue an apology. In contrast, Cisco and Chief Executive John Chambers have received little public scrutiny for providing China's cadres of Comrade Orwells with the Internet surveillance technology they need to cleanse the Net of impure democratic thoughts.

"Cisco is hardly alone in helping China keep the jackboot to the neck of its people. Skype, an EBay Inc. subsidiary, helps the Chinese government monitor and censor text messaging. Microsoft Corp. likewise is a willing conscript in China's Internet policing army, as Bill Gates' minions regularly cleanse the Chinese blogosphere. Google Inc.'s brainiacs, meanwhile, have built a special Chinese version of their powerful search engine to filter out things as diverse as the BBC, freeing Tibet and that four-letter word in China -- democracy."

Good points, all. The professor goes on to challenge the business rationale that at least some of the Internet leaks through:

"Some executives also trot out the 'constructive engagement' defense. This too-clever-by-half idea is that companies such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Skype and Cisco are actually pro-democracy elements because they are helping build China's Internet. Even though these companies collaborate through self-censorship and assist with Internet surveillance, the greater effect is to build free speech -- or so the argument goes.

"What's missing from the American corporate perspective is this bigger picture: The collaborative tools that U.S. corporations provide to spy on, and silence, the Chinese people are far more likely to help prop up a totalitarian regime than topple it."

I think that's a good point, too. But I draw the line at "doing active harm."

I don't think it's a good thing that Google and others censor search results at the behest of the Chinese government, but when they say that their presence there is a toe in the door, I can buy that.

The Yahoo difference is clear: Where Google et al are keeping Chinese citizens from reading about things through their results, Yahoo's actually coughing up information and helping get those citizens arrested.

Cisco's behavior is problematic, too, but I haven't read enough about what Cisco does to have a fair opinion.