JUNE 9TH: BOYCOTT YAHOO!

Up until a few weeks ago, few people would have known the story of Shi Tau. But since 30th April this year –when a draconian sentence of ten years imprisonment was meted out to him by the Chinese authorities - Shi Tau is rapidly becoming an international cause celebre who could help bring one of the biggest new media companies in the world either to its senses, or to it knees.

Until his incarceration Shi Tau was a 37 year old journalist working for a Chinese daily newspaper (Dangdai Shang Bao). Like many other journalists in China Shi Tau received an internal message from the Chinese government warning about the potential “social destabilisation” that would result if Chinese dissidents returned on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Shi Tau decided to make this odious warning public knowledge and he (anonymously) emailed it to a number of foreign websites. The Chinese government were furious and wanted revenge.

Enter the corporate dragon - in the guise of Yahoo! Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) complied fully with the Chinese government and managed to link the anonymous emails to the personal IP address of Shi Tau, knowing full well what this meant for the journalist involved.

For many years now Yahoo! – like Google and other search engines – have censored the free flow on information in China. But Shi Tau’s case was something of a different nature and much more sinister. This was a US-based multinational media corporation acting as police informants, collaborating with a totalitarian regime in order to incarcerate political dissidents.

Shi Tau isn’t the only victim of Yahoo!’s despicable actions in China. Since Shi Tau’s imprisonment it has come to light that in 2003, Wang Xiaoning, another Chinese dissident, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for “incitement to subvert state power”. He had used the internet to advocate a multi-party system. Like Shi Tau, his identity was systematically tracked down by Yahoo! Holdings. Many other such cases are being uncovered.

Yahoo! has answered that they have no alternative but to comply with the Chinese government. What they don’t mention is that in Aug 2005 Yahoo! bought a 40% stake – investing $1billon in cash – in alibaba.com, which is China’s largest e-commerce company. This follows a $120m purchase of Chinese search engine 3721.com.

The ugly truth is that Yahoo! are motivated by profit, and profit alone, playing the role of police informant in order to get lucrative contracts with the Chinese authorities.

Thankfully this Nazi-esque behaviour by Yahoo! is being challenged internationally. The NUJ – joining forces with Privacy International and Reporters Without Borders – have now called for a total users boycott of all Yahoo! services, including email accounts, e-groups, search engines, etc.

Yahoo! is vulnerable, make no mistake about it. If this boycott spreads across the internet – as is already happening – then they can be hurt badly, or even brought to their knees. But it means putting the lofty ideals of internationalism into practical action. Not in a tokenistic way, but by taking solidarity action, publicising them, and spreading the boycott like a computer virus.

In the light of Yahoo!’s actions I’ve decided to withdraw from all e-groups hosted on Yahoo! and am closing down my Yahoo! email address. The SSP has many e-groups hosted on Yahoo! – including our National Council list and SSP Discuss list. To continue to operate or contribute to them in light of what’s happening would totally unacceptable, against our stated principle of internationalism, and would be the equivalent of crossing a virtual picket line.

Yes, it is inconvenient, but not nearly as inconvenient as it is to the Chinese dissidents rotting in jail for the next ten years.

Yahoo! is the ugly face of the new electronic media. It is complicit in human rights abuses and is investing (and profiting) in oppression. Do the decent thing: Boycott Yahoo! and spread the virus. And let’s show the other new media corporations what lies in store if they go down this road.