US giant collaborates with the Chinese authorities in censoring "dangerous" sites and handing over data about cyber-dissidents. Li Zhi, accused by the authorities of being a dissident thanks to data provided by Yahoo!, is sentenced to eight years in prison.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has accused Yahoo! of helping Chinese authorities arrest a cyber-dissident. The press freedom watchdog said that the US-based internet giant has given the authorities in Beijing data on a subscriber in China, Li Zhi, which it said resulted in his arrest and imprisonment. Yahoo! dismissed the accusations, saying that it was unaware of the case.

The watchdog said it had discovered new information about the case of Li, whom it described as a cyber-dissident, who ended up in jail for engaging in online political discussion. Li, a 35-year-old former civil servant from Dazhou, was handed an eight-year prison sentence for subversion in December 2003 based on electronic records provided by Yahoo!. The internet company works regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police, RWB said.

Back in September 2005, RWB said that Shi Tao, a Hong Kong-based journalist, was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison on the basis of Yahoo!-supplied data.

The watchdog has called on Yahoo to supply a list of all cyber-dissidents subject to data requests from Chinese authorities, starting with 81 people for whom it was campaigning.

Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said that since October, Yahoo!'s service on the mainland had been operated and managed by Alibaba, a local firm.

"When we did operate the Yahoo! China business, we only responded with what we were legally compelled to provide and nothing more," she said. "We were rigorous in our procedures and made sure that only the required material was provided."

The government of China is not required to inform service providers why they are seeking certain information and typically does not do so. In practice, this means a provider can abdicate any responsibilities and simply obey government directives. But for the watchdog handing over private data violates a person's rights; it described that stance as an "argument that no longer holds water".

The fresh row came days after US politicians and human rights groups accused technology giants Google, Microsoft, Cisco, as well as Yahoo! of collaborating with Beijing to censor the internet. In a briefing by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, the four US companies were accused of putting profits before principles in their push into the Chinese market.

They bowed to Beijing's demands that the internet in China be censored to prevent Chinese citizens seeing websites with information the government finds "objectionable". 

• china
• us
• reporters
• without
• borders
• censorship
• cyber-dissidents