House Committee Head Lambasts Yahoo

[HardOCP News]

Apparently I’m not the only one that thinks Yahoo execs misled Congress about its role in the arrest of a Chinese journalist.

"Yahoo claims that this is just one big misunderstanding. Let me be clear — this was no misunderstanding," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said in a statement prepared for delivery at a hearing Tuesday. "This was inexcusably negligent behavior at best, and deliberately deceptive behavior at worst," Lantos said.

 

[Azhar]

Yahoo declined to release Callahan's testimony (to the House Foreign Affairs Committee) in advance of Tuesday's hearing, and a spokeswoman referred to the statement he issued last week.

So who does Yahoo work for? The Chinese or the United States? They freely give information to the Chinese government, but declined to release information to the American Congressional Committee?

 

[Squelch Oil]

I find it ironic that our government is calling businesses on the carpet for following the law in China. More ironic still is the fact that many of the capabilities being used to track Chinese dissidents were developed at the behest of the US Government by way of laws like CALEA.

So while I detest what the Chinese are doing, I believe it's the US government's job to apply pressure to them, not to businesses. If our honorable leaders are so upset, they could consider pulling most favored nation trade status, or protesting the olympics, or even go so far as to make it illegal for US companies to do business with China. However, all of those actions would actually be about doing something and might cause uncomfortable economic results, instead they bluster at a company stuck between our laws and Chinese laws.

The government is doing the same thing the companies are, they are turning a blind eye on the human rights abuses in China because it's profitable to do so.

Disclaimer: This opinion and 99 cents will buy you a cup of coffee at the Golden arches.

 

[BoogerBomb]

Can someone out it in plain English just what he hell Yahoo did?

 

[LoneWolf]

I find it ironic that our government is calling businesses on the carpet for following the law in China. More ironic still is the fact that many of the capabilities being used to track Chinese dissidents were developed at the behest of the US Government by way of laws like CALEA.

So while I detest what the Chinese are doing, I believe it's the US government's job to apply pressure to them, not to businesses. If our honorable leaders are so upset, they could consider pulling most favored nation trade status, or protesting the olympics, or even go so far as to make it illegal for US companies to do business with China. However, all of those actions would actually be about doing something and might cause uncomfortable economic results, instead they bluster at a company stuck between our laws and Chinese laws.

The government is doing the same thing the companies are, they are turning a blind eye on the human rights abuses in China because it's profitable to do so.

Disclaimer: This opinion and 99 cents will buy you a cup of coffee at the Golden arches.

While I agree with you in that the government should be applying more pressure, I think ethical US businesses would refuse such information, even if it risks their loss of business with China. I would find having a conscience (as a CEO) even more important than pleasing my shareholders.

Then again, maybe for just that reason, I wouldn't make a good CEO.

 

[LoneWolf]

Can someone out it in plain English just what he hell Yahoo did?

Yahoo supplied information that allowed an anonymous Chinese reporter to be traced, so that China could arrest him as a dissident (that is, someone who publicly disagrees with Chinese policy) and put him in prison, where torture and hard labor are the order of the day in that regime.

They are now saying it was a mistake, an innocent misunderstanding, and they're deeply sorry. Which, when you consider the amount of business aptitude required to create a company such as Yahoo!, sounds like bull. There is no way they could be so clueless as to not know what the information they were supplying would lead to --I think they just considered it "the cost of doing business" in China, and that they never thought they'd be called on the carpet for it over here.

 

[VRMan]

So who does Yahoo work for? The Chinese or the United States? They freely give information to the Chinese government, but declined to release information to the American Congressional Committee?

Well, last I checked, Yahoo doesn't work for any government. But that doesn't mean that they don't have to abide by the laws of the government in the countries in which they operate. Any company operating in multiple countries has a legal team for just such issues. Don't kid yourself into thinking that they did anything illegal.
People in China understand their laws just as we understand the laws in our own. Just because Yahoo operates there doesn't mean that it is a piece of USA that gives its users protection from their government. If they want to commit illegal acts in their country, then they have to be ready to accept the consequences.

What I question is why our government is having hearings about the involvement of Yahoo in a Chinese government investigation. Nothing will come of it. They can't do anything legally against Yahoo.

If our government is so concerned about human rights in China, then I guess we need nuke a few hundred million of their people to make them understand that induhviduals have rights and they should change their governement to a republic FTW!!

 

[Monkey34]

If they want to commit illegal acts in their country, then they have to be ready to accept the consequences.

If our government is so concerned about human rights in China, then I guess we need nuke a few hundred million of their people to make them understand that induhviduals have rights and they should change their governement to a republic FTW!!

Oh.....yea - nice consequences. Ten years for disagreeing with your screwed up country. We should have nuked them a long time ago anyway....right along with Russia and the middle-east.