Yahoo! in China: Lessons for all of us, everywhere.

I've written an article for this month's Far Eastern Economic Review titled Asia's Fight for Web Rights.  It takes a look at how Yahoo! went from assisting in the imprisonment of four dissidents in 2003 and 2004, to being yelled at in Congress in 2006 and 2007, to Jerry Yang's apology and recent establishment of a human rights fund administered by human rights activist Harry Wu.

The article also examines how at least some other companies are trying to learn from Yahoo!'s early mistakes. It explores the different approaches and disagreements over how (or whether) Internet and telecommunications companies are capable of respecting their users' rights to free expression and privacy in markets like China - or in any market for that matter.

Respecting users' rights to free expression and privacy, I argue, should be an integral part of corporate social responsibility - along with respect for the environment, sustainable development, and humane labor practices. But don't sit around waiting for your rights to get respected:

Meanwhile, the rest of us should not simply sit around and wait for our Internet and email service providers, Web-hosting services, and mobile-phone carriers to do the right thing on their own. Technology users around the world have an interest in joining together to insist that the products and services with which we increasingly entrust our careers, our beliefs and the most intimate parts of our lives, will not sell us out because they feel they have “no choice” since all their competitors are selling out their users too.

Click here to read the full article. Feel free to leave your reactions in their comments section.

Also be sure to check out the award-winning article by my colleague David Bandurski, Pulling the Strings of China's Internet, from the December 2007 issue. Now free online.

(Note: for an archive of posts I've written over the past few years about the Yahoo! China case, click here.)

Comments

[mahathir_fan]

FEER - that's a publication I have not read in a long long time.

I want to also point out our expeience in internet censorship in Malaysia - NO CENSORSHIP.

Credit goes to our great beloved dictator Dr. Mahathir who implemented this no-censorship stance. Unfortunately, he seldom gets credit for this by the
Western media. He only gets the bad publicity. Why?

[Rita]

Do you think Google "Don't be Evil"is taking note. I caught this article in the fairfax press (australia) about the possible conflict between privacy and increasing shareholder value:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/dont-be-evil-or-dont-lose-value/2008/04/15/1208025168177.html

It raises that age old issue about profits vs. ethics.

[Larry Parallelogram]

Amazing to see that the TimeWarner empire is openly and threateningly telling its readers that they will hand over user information and details to the police if they feel that the situation warrants this decision. Isn't this what TimeWarner and its media organizations are trying to fight against? How can they get away with saying that they will complicitly put people in danger if they step over the boundaries that have been set by one, or a small group of, journalists? What happened to free speech? Who is setting the boundaries? How can you on one hand, use your media organizations to tell people that it is all right to speak out and then on the other hand put them in danger? It's too bad that Yahoo did not take this position before they sent user information along to the police.

[Ture Sjolander]

A mirror World Wide Internet construction has to be invented. Radio and Television should be excluded from the original World Wide Internet because it will just create another "one way communication" again for a new generation of TV-watchers. Passiv media slaves!
A kinda international doublecated channel system of Internet can be created completely divided from the corporate, government and massmedia interest. Ans so it will be !!!!

[nethosting.89]

A mirror World Wide Internet construction has to be invented.I want to also point out our expeience in internet censorship in Malaysia - NO CENSORSHIP.Thanks for sharing such a informative post with us.

[virtualserver11]

A kinda international doublecated channel system of Internet can be created completely divided from the corporate, government and massmedia interest. Ans so it will be !!!!Thanks for the great information.