Yahoo! sued over torture of Chinese dissident
A Chinese political prisoner sued Yahoo! in a US federal court, accusing the internet company of helping the Chinese government torture him by providing information that led to his arrest.The suit, filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act, is believed to be the first of its kind made against an American internet company.
Wang Xiaoning, who is serving a 10-year sentence in China, and his wife, Yu Ling, who is currently in San Francisco, are seeking damages and an injunction barring Yahoo! from identifying political opponents to the Chinese authorities.
I think that there are a lot of ethical questions involved in providing information to Chinese authorities about dissidents. This though seems to be taking it to far. China, and no one else, is responsible for the treatment of Chinese prisoners.
I don’t have a great answer about what we should do in regards to business with nations with a less then stellar human rights record. Restrictions on commerce very arguably played a role in bringing down the apartheid South African government, but increased commerce very arguably helped to end the Soviet government in Russia. Clearly there isn’t a magic bullet answer here.
There is also I think a distinction between what a moral company would do (and which we can justfiably criticize them for not doing) and what U.S. law should demand our corporations do. I have never felt that everything that it not moral must be illegal.
