Yahoo’s Proposal Opposing China Censorship Rejected by Shareholders

BBC News, Tuesday, 12 June 2007-

Yahoo shareholders have rejected plans for the company to adopt a policy that opposes censorship on the internet.

Proposals to set up a human rights committee which would review its policies around the world, specifically China, were also heavily defeated.

Yahoo has been criticized by human rights groups since 2005 for its role in turning over some political dissidents’ e-mails.

The materials were used to prosecute and imprison them.

But Yahoo insists it must comply with local laws in areas where it operates.

De-listed sites

At the company’s annual general meeting, the censorship proposal won only about 15% of support while only 4% backed the idea of a human rights committee.

Last year, Human Rights Watch, a New York based campaign group, accused Yahoo, Google and Microsoft for “carrying out censorship for the Chinese government”.

Whole websites – including media sources – are eliminated from Yahoo and Google in China.

De-listed sites are skipped over when the search engine trawls the web for results.

Neither Yahoo nor any other company has released a list of websites that have been de-listed for their political and religious content.

The internet firms argue it is better to offer Chinese users some information than none at all.

– original from BBC News: Yahoo’s China policy rejected