In what is possibly the fourth revelation of Yahoo!’s cooperation with Chinese authorities resulting in the jailing of a Chinese citizen, non-profit association Human Rights in China (HRIC) said dissident Wang Xiaoning was sentenced to 10 years in 2003 in part on the basis of information provided by the US Internet giant. An announcement on the HRIC website said:
Among the evidence against Wang cited in the judgment is information provided by Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. stating that Wang’s “aaabbbccc” Yahoo! Group was set up using the mainland China-based email address [email protected]. Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. also confirmed that the email address [email protected], through which Wang sent messages to the Group, was a mainland China-based account. The judgment does not indicate whether Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. or Yahoo! China (which is now operated by mainland-based Alibaba.com) provided specific information regarding Wang’s identity. The judgment also notes that in 2001, administrators of Wang’s mainland China-based Yahoo! Group noticed the political content of Wang’s writings and did not allow him to continue distribution through the Group. He then began distributing his journal by email to individual email addresses. [Statement from Human Rights in China].[Reuters coverage @ CNN.com].
[Posted by David Bandurski, April 28, 2006, 12:52pm]