Thread: Yahoo Shuts down Stop Amnesty Site- Pro IA Sites OK

This is madness

[size=200] YAHOO SHUTS DOWN “STOP AMNESTY NOWâ€

Yahoo does not like anyone opposing their views and they are amnesty supporters. Anything violates their rules if it "offends" someone....yet they'll allow personal threats and such from the other side. The only opinion you are entitled to have is one they agree with.

OH.....they also time and time again keep throwing anything from here, Numbers, Fair, etc. in the SPAM section. Even when you mark it not spam......they send a couple and then start right back in putting it in Spam. Yet real spam finds no problem getting in.

Didn't Yahoo also do a deal with China to limit free speech. I guess they see the importance of everyone having free speech--EXCEPT AMERICAN CITIZENS!!!

This is kinda old, says March in the e-mail.

Dixie

US rebukes Yahoo over China case

Yahoo's Michael Callahan and Jerry Yang at the House committee hearing
Yahoo's senior officers say the firm has to comply with local laws
A US congressional panel has criticised internet firm Yahoo for not giving full details to a probe into the jailing of a reporter by Chinese authorities.

Yahoo had been "at best inexcusably negligent" and at worst "deceptive" in evidence given to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year, it said.

Yahoo's Michael Callahan originally told Congress he did not know why China wanted the reporter's details.

Shi Tao was jailed after Yahoo helped Chinese officials identify him.

Chief executive Jerry Yang said his firm had always been open with Congress and that it was "fully committed to protecting human rights".

Yahoo has previously said it had to comply with Chinese laws to operate in the country.

'State secrets'

Democratic Representative Tom Lantos, chairman of the House committee, issued a stinging rebuke to the US-based internet giant at Tuesday's hearing.


This was inexcusably negligent behaviour at best, and deliberately deceptive behaviour at worst
Tom Lantos
House Foreign Affairs Committee

At issue is whether Michael Callahan, Yahoo's executive vice-president and general counsel, gave false information to the panel during an investigation in February 2006.

Mr Callahan said then that he did not know why the Chinese authorities wanted to trace Shi Tao - who was jailed for 10 years - but it has since emerged that other Yahoo employees had a document stating it was to do with the "suspected illegal provision of state secrets".

Mr Callahan wrote a letter to Congress last week to apologise and stating that the pertinent information only came to his attention months after he gave testimony.

Mr Lantos said any big company operating in China should have been aware of the authorities' repression of free speech.

He also questioned how Mr Callahan could not have known of the document referring to "state secrets" - a charge commonly used to prosecute dissidents and pro-democracy activists.

Chinese computer users
Chinese computer users are barred from accessing some websites

"Yahoo claims that this is just one big misunderstanding," Mr Lantos said.

"Let me be clear - this was no misunderstanding. This was inexcusably negligent behaviour at best, and deliberately deceptive behaviour at worst."

Mr Callahan responded that there had been confusion over the information Yahoo had about the demand made by Chinese authorities.

He apologised for the "misunderstanding" and for not letting the House committee know when the additional information came to his attention.

Urged by Mr Lantos to "beg the forgiveness" of Shi Tao's mother, who was present at the hearing, both Mr Callahan and Mr Yang turned and nodded silently to her.

Mr Lantos added: "I do not believe America's brightest and best companies should be playing integral roles in China's notorious and brutal political repression apparatus."

Shi Tao was jailed for sending on to foreign websites an e-mail from the ruling Communist Party warning journalists not to cover the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2004.

Blocked content

Last month, the House committee backed legislation which would prevent internet companies such as Yahoo from co-operating with authorities in China and elsewhere.

Under the legislation, companies would also have to reveal terms and phrases they filtered in certain countries.

The bill, introduced by Republican representative Chris Smith, still needs approval from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The Chinese government enforces strict laws on internet use, blocking content it considers a threat, including references to the Tiananmen Square massacre and notable dissidents.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7081458.stm

[From US Congress Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing Website]


Statement of Chairman Lantos at hearing, Yahoo! Inc.’s Provision of False Information to Congress

When the news broke in August that this committee was investigating officials at Yahoo! Inc. in connection with repression in China, CNN International carried the story – but nobody in China saw it. As soon as the anchor started discussing this case, the screen faded to black. And that is typical. State control over media in China – from the printing presses to the airwaves to the Internet – is practically absolute.

Those who manage occasionally to pierce the veil of secrecy pay a heavy price. Such is the case with a young journalist named Shi Tao, who is languishing in a Chinese dungeon on a 10-year sentence because he pierced the veil, and a huge, U.S.-based multinational company practically led the police to his door.

On the eve of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre three years ago, the Chinese government issued a directive forbidding journalists from covering anything related to this anniversary.

In a brief second that would have a momentous impact on the rest of his life, Shi Tao hit the “forwardâ€

If you're a Yahoo user, I'd recommend dumping them. End of story.

I never use Yahoo because I think they're a bunch of "Yahoos". But I'll make double-sure I never use them accidentally because this type of censorship proves they're a bunch of "Yahoos".

I have an email address with them and there are Obama ads constantly all over the place.