By Stevie Smith Aug 29, 2007, 14:07 GMT
Global Internet services giant Yahoo! Inc. has this week requested a US court dismiss accusations that by passing on private user information it directly assisted the Chinese Government in imprisoning a political dissident that called for democracy on a Chinese Internet forum.
The Times Online reports that Yahoo has claimed the ongoing legal action to be one of a strictly political nature "challenging the laws and actions of the Chinese Government." Yahoo has also insisted that it was only following the letter of the law by providing authorities in China with the private information relating to the user in question – due to him holding an e-mail account with Yahoo! China.
Yahoo’s latest move follows the ten-year imprisonment of Wang Xiaoning in 2003 after his online promotion of democracy was deemed to be an "incitement to subvert state power." Wang Xiaoning’s wife filed a lawsuit against Yahoo in April of this year in light of the Chinese court’s request to Yahoo for access to Wang’s private e-mail communications and other related personal information during his trial, which ultimately helped contribute to his decade of incarceration.
"This is a lawsuit by citizens of China imprisoned for using the internet in China to express political views in violation of China law. It is a political case challenging the laws and actions of the Chinese government. It has no place in the American courts," commented Yahoo in a filing brought before a federal court in California.
Yahoo, while expressing its sympathy and also stating that it did not condone the actions of the Chinese Government in terms of suppressing the rights and liberty of its people, maintained that is has absolutely no control or influence regarding the laws passed and enforced by Chinese authorities. However, the Internet specialist also pointed out that those found guilty had run "the risk of harm" when they chose to "engage in activity they knew violated Chinese law."
However, Morton Sklar of the World Organisation for Human Rights USA believes that Yahoo is responsible for the jail time presently being served by Wang and other imprisoned dissidents. "It is not the Chinese Government that is the defendant here. It is Yahoo!, for their part in this process," he commented to the New York Times. "They gave the pieces of information that allowed China to take these actions."
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