Yahoo grapples with online rights

Statement to outline belief in openness and freedom of speech--even when it is forced to violate those beliefs by laws in China.
The New York Times

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[Jim Hubbard]

When is a belief worth standing up for?

"...Yahoo plans to issue a statement Monday outlining its belief in openness and freedom of speech--even when it is forced to violate those beliefs by laws in China."

If I may be so bold as to assume that Yahoo values freedom of speech, would it turn in Chinese Yahoo users that the governemtn of China seeks to place in prison for speaking of democracy? Or, would it turn in users it knew faced the death penalty for speaking out against the Chinese government? Or, would it help the Chinese government by sending Yahoo hit squads to do the job for it?

When is a beliefe worth standing up for?

When free speech is banned (as it is in China)? How about when people are jailed for speakign out against percieved wrongs (as is happening in China)? Or is it when people are put to death for speaking out against a government (as is happening in China)?

Yahoo's statement of beliefs don't mean squat if there are no actions to back them up.

Yahoo, like Google, is simply another corporation that will prostitute itself, its beliefs and its users for a yuan.

Shame on you, Yahoo!

[Jonathan]

"even when it is _forced_ to violate"

I call BS. Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and everyone else doesn?t have a fricking gun to their heads. This is nothing more then a race to see who can get first dibs on China?s lucrative market that is about to emerge.
Would you be willing to let your morals and ethics slide if you could collect hundreds of millions, if not billions, in revenue? Remember kiddies. Large scale businesses have no ethics. When your shareholder, and occasionally the government, are the only ones who hold your feet to the fire what?s to fear as long as you make them money.

[venky0425]

Exactly what IBM did with the Nazis

By providing all tech for "The Final Solution". Make a deal with the devil and you will get your due eventually

[Jonathan]

Oh god...pleeeease.

OMG. This is getting ridiculous. This is an old issue that needs to die. Its something that people are blowing all out of proportion because of a sensationalistic book. The only thing that IBM did for Germany was done via Dehomag the german arm of Watson Business Machines. In all likelihood said arm was probably taken over by the Nazis early on in the war.
It?s asinine to assume that IBM as a company knew what those machines were being used for. Hell even the people operating the equipment in Germany didn?t know what it was being used for. The example is a bad one at best. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc are parent companies who know FULL well what they are doing to the extent they are making up outright justifications to cover their ass.ets.