IP Democracy: Yahoo! Sued For Torture Link But Don't Expect a Trial

Yahoo! has been sued in a federal court in San Francisco by the wife of an imprisoned Chinese journalist for aiding and embedding the man’s imprisonment and torture. The landmark suit, believed to be the first of its kind against an Internet company, was filed in San Francisco by resident Yu Ling on behalf of her husband, Wang Xiaoning, who is serving a ten-year sentence for publishing pro-democracy articles.

The novel claims are being brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act and the suit argues that Yahoo! helped Chinese authorities identify Wang as the source of the articles and therefore are responsible for the suffering that has befallen him. The complaint seeks damages and a permanent injunction that would bar Yahoo! from cooperating with Chinese authorities in a similar way in the future.

In its defense, Yahoo! falls back on the old argument that it abides by the laws of the countries within which it operates and that it only hands over information about dissidents under “threat of civil and criminal penalties.” But, as Rebecca MacKinnon points out, there is reason to believe that Yahoo! volunteered the information about Wang without a demand or request by the Chinese authorities.

As MacKinnon also points out, Wang’s suit is a long shot because “who is going to be able to prove the facts of what actually happened between Chinese investigators and Yahoo!’s local employees in 2002 in China?” I might also add that the U.S. federal courts will have a very difficult time ruling against Yahoo! if what the company did is abide by another country’s laws.

Even if this suit doesn’t go very far, it puts a lot of pressure on Yahoo! nonetheless. The company has a lot of explaining to do about its policies regarding human rights and user rights around the globe. Or as MacKinnon puts it

They are caught between their users’ needs and interests, on one hand, and the interests/demands of governments on the other. They need to convince us that they won’t sell their users out.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on April 20, 2007 3:51 PM to IP Democracy