IP Democracy: Yahoo Posts Statement in Advance of House Hearing

This is a big week for congressional hearings — a House International Relations subcommittee on global human rights will be holding a hearing tomorrow dubbed “The Internet in China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression?” Executives from Yahoo, Microsoft and Google have been lined up to presumably take some heat for their controversial acquiescence to the Chinese government’s oppressive censorship policies.

In advance of the hearing, Yahoo has released a statement, “Yahoo!: Our Beliefs as a Global Internet Company,” outlining the company’s principles on issues that surround the censorship problem. One interesting aspect of the statement is the high degree to which Yahoo says the solution to the problem should be government-to-government dialog.

Rebecca MacKinnon isn’t buying that. If industry doesn’t lobby government for change, then nothing much will happen.

So if Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others sit back and say: this is the government’s business and don’t make concerted efforts to assist and lobby in China, we can conclude they’re not very serious.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on February 14, 2006 8:58 AM to IP Democracy