Is Yahoo at fault for giving information about its users to the Chinese government?  The National Union of Journalists (NUJ), based out of the United Kingdom and Ireland, thinks so.  They have posted an article on the front page of their website asking for all their 35,000+ members to boycott Yahoo for its “unethical” behavior.  The article cites the examples of three Chinese journalists, each of them imprisoned for 4-10 years because Yahoo gave information about them to the Chinese government. 

These Chinese reporters were guilty of things like forwarding a governmental email to foreign reporters.  In the case of one Chinese journalist, Shi Tao, he emailed a warning to Chinese writers to avoid topics about Tiananmen during the event’s anniversary.  Apparently the reporters were using Yahoo to send such pro-democratic information around the world.  The Chinese enforcement agencies went to Yahoo and demanded information about the account and discovered that Shi Tao was the owner of the account.  Chinese police then arrested him.

The NUJ takes this view of things: Yahoo is selling out people’s freedom in order to make a buck in China.  Yahoo, on the other hand, thinks that they are legally obligated to obey the law in whatever country they operate in.  They don’t like the fact that the Chinese government is using Yahoo’s information to imprison dissidents, but they have to obey Chinese law or leave China.  And they feel that their presence in China, even if it is censored, is still a service that increases the availability of knowledge in China.  Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google put it this way, "We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference."  (Read here for Yahoo’s response to Shi Tao’s arrest.)

Mr. Brin is commenting on the issue because Google is in the same boat as Yahoo.  They have created a censored search engine, Google.cn, just for China.  In fact, as I was using the internet here in China yesterday, I found it difficult to use Google.com—there are rumors online (here) that China is blocking Google’s main website in favor of the censored Chinese version.

Is it right for Western based search engines, coming from a culture that believes in free speech and human rights, to allow a nation without these beliefs to enforce its own brand of justice on its people?  It is a matter of opinion.  Information is a valuable commodity, but on the other hand, if Google and Yahoo stepped out of China, many others would gladly step in their place.  Leaving would not stop censorship.

Both sides of the issue have merits and both base their arguments on different perspectives.  Yahoo and Google are corporations existing in a business world, where hard reality and hard numbers dictate choice.  Ideals and morals are a necessary secondary consideration—they are doing what they can after their business model is secured because, if they don’t, their companies won’t exist at all (in China).  The National Union of Journalists exists to protect the rights and conditions of journalists so they are necessarily more idealistic.

In my opinion, I don’t think Yahoo and Google should pull out of China.  I do think its better to have a grudgingly censored search engine than a completely compliant search engine.  But I also think that groups like the NUJ need to exist and speak out.  Someone needs to keep big companies on their toes and make them accountable for both honest mistakes and bad decisions.