Boycott Yahoo

A slightly abridged version of an article in the SSP's newpaper:

Up until a few weeks ago, few people would have known the story of Shi Tau. But since 30 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 August 2005 Yahoo! bought a 40 per cent stake - investing $1billion in cash - in alibaba.com, which is China’s largest e-commerce company. This follows a
$120million 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.

You most likely will not find much support here. From reading most of the posts here I think that the prevailing thought is " All animals are created equal, but some animal are more equal than others."

You should change the story to read that Yahoo is helping the USA track down terrorist by providing information about their use of the Yahoo web site (which my be true anyway).

Please send a personal message to me with your email address (even a temporary one).

To drive a world wide boycott of Yahoo on behalf of the Scottish Socialist Voice, I'll email you a spreadsheet with email addresses of hundreds of activist organisations across the world.

I've used them before. They forward messages on to all their members who then forward it on further. They even create web pages with the message.

Of course, you can always cut and paste the opening post in an email to your own contacts and start the ball rolling in protest against Yahoo.

let's boycott RHP as well then because they have Nazi tendancies 😴

quote from the TOS
"You acknowledge, consent and agree that RHP may access, preserve, and disclose your account information and Content if required to do so by law"

If required by law, they will follow orders and be police informants.

Start the ball rolling, Sambo69, boycott RHP 😛

Originally posted by Redmike
A slightly abridged version of an article in the SSP's newpaper:

Up until a few weeks ago, few people would have known the story of Shi Tau. But since 30 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 o ...[text shortened]... by taking solidarity action, publicising them, and spreading the boycott like a computer virus.

Originally posted by Sambo69
Please send a personal message to me with your email address (even a temporary one).

To drive a world wide boycott of Yahoo on behalf of the Scottish Socialist Voice, I'll email you a spreadsheet with email addresses of hundreds of activist organisations across the world.

I've used them before. They forward messages on to all their members who then fo ...[text shortened]... ing post in an email to your own contacts and start the ball rolling in protest against Yahoo.

Originally posted by Redmike
Just to clarify, the SSP isn't initiating this boycott, but simply published an article supporting it.

And we've moved our internal discussion boards from Yahoo.

Originally posted by Nargaguna
I do not suppose that Yahoo, or anyone else, gives a damn what you and the SSP choose to support.

Originally posted by Nargaguna
Yahoo is motivated by profit according to you.

Who is not, including you who find it most profitable to live on 'benefits', instead of working for your living?

I'm sick of people who dismiss the arguements of protestors by changing the subject and implying that protestors don't work for a living, as if there's something wrong with that.

Personally, I prefer to work but I have also taken time off work, forgoing income, to protest while people yell at me to get a job.

There's a lot of reasons why someone might not work.

There's a lot of people who have achieved great things without having a job (including mothers).

There's a lot of good things in this world that only came about through protest.

Anyone who dismisses another in this way is idiotic scum.

Originally posted by Redmike
A slightly abridged version of an article in the SSP's newpaper:

Up until a few weeks ago, few people would have known the story of Shi Tau. But since 30 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 o ...[text shortened]... by taking solidarity action, publicising them, and spreading the boycott like a computer virus.

nothing to do with communism,
more to do with "power corrupts"

Originally posted by Sambo69
I'm sick of people who dismiss the arguements of protestors by changing the subject and implying that protestors don't work for a living, as if there's something wrong with that.

Personally, I prefer to work but I have also taken time off work, forgoing income, to protest while people yell at me to get a job.

There's a lot of reasons why someone might ...[text shortened]... y came about through protest.

Anyone who dismisses another in this way is idiotic scum.

Originally posted by Ullr
Agree that this is despicable on the part of Yahoo.

But while we're at it let us also not forget that Totalitarian China is a perfect example of where the drive towards Communism really leads to.

Originally posted by Redmike
Some countries, including China, have attempted to move towards communism, but none of them have done so succesfully.

It doesn't have to end up like the USSR or China.