“I Do NOT Yahoo!” Update: A Chinese Dissident Speaks Out

In the process, he shreds the claim that by doing the government’s bidding in suppressing speech and hunting down dissidents, Yahoo! is nevertheless somehow helping lead the country to a freer future (HT David Kopel at Volokh; bolds are mine):

Veteran dissident Liu Xiaobo, in an open letter to Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, accuses the US company of betraying its customers and supporting dictatorship by providing information on journalist Shi Tao to Chinese authorities.

“Major foreign companies should not be helping the Chinese government to limit freedom of speech on the internet,” Mr Liu told the Financial Times. “This is shameless.”

….. Some commentators have defended Yahoo, saying companies doing business in China cannot defy the government, but that their operations encourage greater openness and improve the lives of ordinary Chinese.

Mr. Liu dismisses such arguments in his letter, however. The author, who has spent years in jail for his criticism of the Communist party, says Yahoo has enough market clout not to need to toady to authorities.

International companies are ignoring basic human rights in return for business opportunity, while the Communist party is offering profits in return for continued control of the internet and the ability to intimidate dissidents, Mr. Liu writes.

“The collusion of these two kinds of ugliness means that there is no way for western investment to promote freedom of speech in China, and that in fact it greatly increases the ability of the Communist party to blockade and control the internet,” he writes.

“You are helping the Communist party maintain an evil system of control over freedom of information and speech,” he writes.

Google has excluded sites blocked by the state from its Chinese news service, while MSN banned the words “freedom” and “democracy” from parts of its new Chinese website.

In his letter, Mr. Liu calls on internet users to boycott Yahoo services until the company apologises to Mr. Shi, compensates his family and “ceases close co-operation” with China’s censors.

I encourage readers to consider following Mr. Liu’s suggestion, including when possible clicking through to Yahoo! News pages, and to follow Google’s and MSN’s actions closely. Though their censorship is odious, Google’s and MSN’s actions aren’t yet rising to the level of Yahoo!’s “cooperation.”