This post is coming to you from inside the BroadRelay rack cage!

I’ve seen a couple stories now chastising Yahoo! for not supporting free speech in the China / Shi Tao case. Basically this guy leaked secret government[1] documents and Yahoo! helped the government identify him through his email.

First off, if that happened within our own borders (i’m writing this from the US) then I would be disappointed with Yahoo! I haven’t taken the time to outline why i would feel this way (maybe its just too darned un-American) because this case didn’t happen in the US. It happened in China.

Yahoo is not in China to push a social agenda. Lets all be clear about that. Its in China because its a huge market in which to make money[2]. Yahoo! has no responsibility to spread democracy in the world. I wouldn’t want some Chinese company coming into the states and trying to suppress speech, and by the same logic, Yahoo! shouldn’t go into China and be uncooperative with the government in the name of a freedom which that government does not allow.

If you want to be a Yahoo! hater because they do business in China in the first place, be my guest. Just don’t get all uppity after the fact cause they follow the rules and regulations over there.

Oh, and the big irony of all this? If the U.S. government went to Yahoo! and said you were a terrorist, Yahoo! would have to hand over your identity too. No need for proof. Thanks to the Patriot Act. I’d like to see a comparison of China’s official policy on privacy compared to post-Patriot Act U.S. I’m sure it would be a close fight to see which is the worst

Funny Foot Notes
[1] Some of the articles refer to the chinese government just as “communists” like its just some random communists running around that Yahoo! worked with. Like it or not its the officially recognized government of China, and they happen to be part of the communist party in China.
[2] there’s a great moral debate to have, instead of this nonsense