Yahoo has been charged with helping to have a second Chinese cyber-dissident jailed.

"Now we know Yahoo works regularly and efficiently with the Chinese police," declares Reporters Without Borders.

Last April, Shi Tao, 37, was jailed for 10 years for allegedly providing Chinese state secrets to foreigners.

"Yahoo ! obviously complied with requests from the Chinese authorities to furnish information regarding an IP address that linked Shi Tao to materials posted online, and the company will yet again simply state that they just conform to the laws of the countries in which they operate," said RWB. "But does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations?"

Now it says it's found another Yahoo customer, cyber-dissident Li Zhi, was given an eight-year prison sentence in December 2003, based on electronic records provided by Yahoo.

"How many more cases are we going to find? - it asks rhetorically. "We were sure the case of Shi Tao, who was jailed for 10 years last April on the basis of Yahoo-supplied data, was not the only one."

The organization is demanding that Yahoo hands over a list of all cyber-dissidents it's provided data on, starting with 81 people in China whose release it's currently campaigning for.

"The foreign-based news website Boxun.com posted on February 5 the plea of cyberdissident Li’s lawyer, Zhang Sizhi, at an appeal court hearing in February 2004," says RWB, going on:

"Zhang said his client, who used the e-mail address libertywg@yahoo.com.cn and user-name lizhi34100, had been sentenced on the basis of data handed over by Yahoo ! Hong Kong in a report dated August 1, 2003.

"Li, a 35-year-old ex-civil servant from Dazhou (South-West), had been sentenced on December 10, 2003 to eight years in prison for 'inciting subversion.' He had been arrested the previous August after he criticized in online discussion groups and articles the corruption of local officials.

"Local sources said Yahoo ! Hong Kong’s cooperation with the police was also mentioned in the court’s verdict on Li."

Yahoo's policy is to, "comply with local laws," the San Francisco Chronicle has Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako saying, "It's an issue that we take very seriously, and the facts surrounding the Shi Tao case are very distressing to us."

However, Yahoo isn't alone in actively helping the totalitarian state of China to act forcibly against its citizens.

As p2pnet reported this week, Google is using blacklists to censor search results in China, says Dynamic Internet Technology ceo Bill Xia.

And Microsoft recently pulled the blog of well-known Chinese blogger Zhao Jing who used the MSN online service in China.

Also See:
Reporters Without Borders - Another cyberdissident imprisoned because of data provided by Yahoo, February 9, 2006
state secrets - Yahoo: 'China police informant', Septrember 7, 2005
San Francisco Chronicle - Details emerge in China case, February 9, 2006
censor search results - Google China's internet blacklists, February 6, 2006
pulled the blog - Microsoft's new China rules, February 1, 2006

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