Hong Kong Lawmaker Continues Attack on Yahoo over Journalist Jailing in China
Hong Kong's privacy commissioner said there wasn't enough evidence to show that Yahoo's Hong Kong office revealed private information to Chinese authorities that jailed Chinese reporter Shi Tao for ten years. Hong Kong lawmaker Albert Ho criticized the report and said Chinese court documents specifically cited Yahoo's Hong King office.
From AP story:
On Wednesday, Ho criticized the privacy commissioner's report, saying Yahoo! Hong Kong is still responsible because it controls the company's China office.
``I have reason to believe the decision (to give information on Shi) was made in Hong Kong,'' Ho said.
He said Yahoo! shouldn't have surrendered the information to Chinese authorities unquestioningly.
``As an international company, Yahoo should know there are international standards it should follow, including those involving human rights and privacy. There's no reason for it not to investigate whether (the information Shi released) was a state secret,'' Ho said.
Human Rights Watch said earlier Yahoo also supplied information to Chinese authorities that led to the arrests of another journalist and two other Chinese dissidents besides Shi.
Yahoo and any other US based Internet companies should not collect identifiable data on users in countries which jail dissidents for actions protected in the US.
It is the ethical and right thing to do.
Please see SVW:
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