According to this article, Yahoo gave information on a Chinese journalist to the Chinese government. The journalist went to prison for 10 years for divulging “state secrets”.
“The state secret was a message to Shi’s newspaper warning journalists of the dangers associated with dissidents returning to mark the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, according to the group. Shi admitted sending the e-mail but disputed whether it was a secret document.”
I’m sick. I really am. To lock away a guy for ten years for something so patently idiotic.
There’s a morale dilemma for companies operating in China. Do you cooperate with the Borg to keep it happy and to forward your commercial interests — and possibly risk your own integrity? Perhaps one can just become “forgetful” or “lose the data”?
There’s a lot of good people at Yahoo, and I’m sure they were horrified to learn about this. If this story is true, it’s likely Yahoo got a request from the Chinese government and released the information to them, not realizing this poor guy was going to go to jail. It’s hard to blame them… their own employees would have probably gone to jail themselves for not honoring the request. Or Yahoo might have lost vital access they need to get their Chinese markets going. But that is a tough decision.
Alex Eckelberry