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November 6, 2007
Yahoo Takes a Beating From Congress
Last week Yahoo issued an apology to Congress, claiming that its previous assertions about what it knew or not regarding a Chinese dissident it helped lock up were untrue, but not deliberate lies.
What Yahoo claimed to realize it could have known all along was that the Chinese government clearly wanted information about Chinese journalist and dissident Shi Tao so it could imprison him for expressing pro-democracy views. For its failure to realize that when it was testifying before Congress about its role in Chinese human rights abuses, Yahoo said it was abjectly sorry.
And that caused me to stop and wonder what Yahoo would have done differently if it had realized the Chinese government wasn't looking for information on a common criminal, but was seeking data it could use to imprison someone who has done nothing anyone living in a liberal democracy could take issue with.
Would it have stood up to the Chinese police and refused to provide the information? That would make a difference to me, because my objection to Yahoo's conduct all along has been based on its apparent willingness to provide any information asked of it under any circumstances provided the request is lawful within the jurisdiction it's made. Yahoo's testimony before Congress today (well covered at Wired here, here and here) offered an opportunity to learn just what Yahoo makes of its own conduct to this point.
Unfortunately, it seems clear that even if the people running the company feel an occasional pang of conscience, their behavior isn't going to change. Most of the coverage indicates vague promises to try to do better in other markets the company enters, but there's no indication existing policy in China will change:
"I cannot ask our local employees to resist lawful demands and put their own freedom at risk, even if, in my personal view, the local laws are overbroad.' [Yahoo general counsel Michael] Callahan said.
"Mr. Callahan could not say whether there were outstanding demands from the Chinese government for information from Yahoo, or whether Yahoo would react the same today to a demand for information from the Chinese government.
"He did say that in going into future markets, like Vietnam, Yahoo would aim to find a way to avoid turning over to the government information on citizens' online activities."
That doesn't do anything to improve my opinion of the company.
On the other hand, there's something repulsive about Congress spending the day calling Yahoo's executives "moral pygmies" when there's little indication it will muster similar courage (or outrage) when confronted with demands to let American telecoms off the hook for warrantless wiretaps.
Several bloggers caught this distinction today, but Declan McCullagh has the most comprehensive expression of disgust over all the showboating and hand-wringing:
"Now the two Yahoo execs are being asked to apologize to Shi Tao's mother, who is sitting in a front row of the hearing room. Lantos: 'I would urge you to beg the forgiveness of the mother whose son is languishing behind bars thanks to Yahoo's actions.' I wonder if Lantos and other Patriot Act supporters will apologize to Americans like Brandon Mayfield (falsely jailed under the Patriot Act) or Sami al-Hussayen (a Webmaster who provided hyperlinks to Muslim sites and was prosecuted under the Patriot Act)."
and
"Keep in mind the background here: Many politicians simply detest China not for reasons relevant here (a brutal thuggish regime) but for unrelated ones (cheap products and its currency peg to the U.S. dollar). Others, like Smith, a Roman Catholic, are fiercely anti-China because of its persecution of religious minorities. In other words, Yahoo is being used as a convenient way to attack China for unrelated reasons."
So if Congress is busy ceding its moral authority on human rights and democratic values so it can get a few licks in on a proxy for China ... a Yahoo-shaped effigy of China ... who is in a position to castigate Yahoo?
Yahoo's potential customers, for one. The market.
The Wall St. Journal notes that correction may be underway:
"The debate over China is just one of the pressures facing Mr. Yang, who succeeded Terry Semel as CEO in June. Mr. Semel had also been dogged by questions about Yahoo's actions in China. Like executives at Google and other Internet companies, Mr. Semel repeatedly expressed his outrage at China's repressive policies while arguing that the company had to follow the laws of countries where it does business.
"Some analysts pointed to the hearing as a reason that Yahoo's shares dropped 5% on a day when the stock market was generally up. The decline came despite the potential benefit to the company from the hugely successful initial public stock offering in Hong Kong yesterday of Chinese Internet company Alibaba.com Ltd., in which Yahoo owns a 39% stake."
So maybe the hypocritical scolding had some utility after all.
Posted by mhall at 10:28 PM | Add Comment
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