Yahoo Settles With Chinese Families
Firm Gave Officials Dissidents' E-Mails
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007; Page D04
This article clarifies a lot of issues regarding the Yahoo apology from last weeks blog entry. There were actually two Chinese descendants that were involved in this ordeal. They were both human rights activists and yahoo released information to the Chinese government about the email accounts of the two activists. The World Organization for Human Rights represented the families of these individuals in a suit against Yahoo. It seems as though the basis of the suit was for oppressing human rights activists. Yahoo admitted their wrong doings and settled the claim with the families.
From this case, and other similar ones, some lawmakers are proposing a new act. It would be called the Global Online Freedom Act, and one of its objectives would be to prohibit US companies from giving information about their customers to foreign governments. I believe that this act would be very beneficial in a number of ways including the limitation of suppressing voices and opinions. On the other hand though, this bill may limit the ability of US companies to operate in foreign countries because of the regulations that some foreign countries enforce regarding disclosure. Overall though, if this bill passes, I believe the benefits will outweigh any negative consequences.
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