The wife of a Chinese man jailed in Beijing for promoting democracy plans to sue Yahoo for allegedly turning over information about him to authorities.
WASHINGTON: The wife of a Chinese man jailed in Beijing for promoting democracy plans to sue Yahoo Inc for allegedly turning over information about him to authorities.
Yu Ling, 55, is in the United States scouting for a lawyer to file the case for husband Wang Xiaoning, serving a 10-year sentence since September 2002 for using the Internet to advocate democracy, according to The Washington Times.
She charged that the California-based search giant Yahoo provided evidence that helped Chinese authorities convict Wang, 57, the newspaper said.
"I have to help my husband," Yu said. "Yahoo is wrong ... I hope Yahoo is punished and the other companies learn from it," she said.
Wang was convicted for inciting "the subversion of state power" and his appeal has been rejected, the report said, adding that both court opinions cited information provided by Yahoo.
Yahoo, along with Google and Microsoft, have been accused of putting business ahead of integrity by succumbing to China's pressure and censoring sensitive information on its Chinese search engines, websites and blogs.
The three portals are battling for a share of China's fast-growing Internet market, the second-largest Internet user in the world after the United States.
In 2002, Yahoo voluntarily signed the "Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the China Internet Industry," agreeing to abide by Chinese censorship regulations.
"It's important to note that law-enforcement agencies in China, the United States and elsewhere typically do not explain to information technology companies like Yahoo ... why they demand specific information in a criminal investigation regarding certain individuals," Yahoo spokesman Jim Cullinan was quoted saying by The Washington Times.
"Yahoo condemns punishment of any activity recognized as freedom of expression. We have expressed our strong feelings about such actions to the Chinese government as well as the US State Department," he said.
Last week, the Hong Kong government cleared Yahoo from charges it provided information that led to the jailing of a Chinese journalist, saying the Internet portal did not violate privacy laws.
Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2005 for leaking state secrets after posting on the Internet a government order barring Chinese media from marking the 15th anniversary of the brutal 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on democracy activists.
Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. allegedly provided information that proved Shi had emailed the information from his office computer at Contemporary Business News, based in the central Chinese province of Hunan.
It was accused of providing the Internet Protocol (IP) address of Shi's computer and his work phone number and address. The IP address is a unique number assigned to every computer connected to the Internet.
However, Hong Kong privacy commissioner Roderick Woo ruled last Wednesday that the IP address Yahoo provided to the Chinese authorities was not personal data and did not reveal Shi's identity.
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