Yahoo shareholders reject human rights oversight in China
Apparently following Google shareholder’s lead, Yahoo shareholders have rejected a policy that opposes censorship in China, as well as proposals to set up a human rights committee. The search companies argues that “it is better to offer Chinese users some information than none at all.” I don’t actually believe that’s true (depending on what rights you’re championing, and certainly not from the freedom from censorship/intellectual freedom perspective). It might be better to offer Chinese users factual, complete information- but offering only bits of information or misinformation might be worse than offering no information at all.
Update: Via Slashdot, Yahoo’s SEC filing with their rationale for rejecting those proposals (sections 6 and 7).
Lanselot said,
June 25, 2007 @ 9:47 pm
Not only search engines, but many countries deal with china despite its lack of many elemental rights. Not that it’s new, but money is what matters. And China has a great potential for it.
It’s sad that noone rejects to deal with such a country.