Not buying it. Your tortured (pun intended) rationalization doesn’t fool thinking folks.

How do you sleep at night?

I love freedom of speech. Unfortunately, Chinese citizens don’t have that luxury.

Let’s take the focus off of Yahoo and place the focus on the Chinese criminal who broke a Chinese law.

According to reports, Google helped the Indian government track down an Orkut member whose crime was posting an insulting picture of an Indian historical figure.

But wait, there’s more. After Google handed over their member’s IP address, Indian police took the information to the matching Internet service provider. Problem is, the ISP then narc’d the wrong guy, a poor sap named Lakshmana Kailash K. So to review, because of Google’s strict adherence to Indian laws, a man ended up spending three weeks in jail, wrongfully accused of what again? Oh yes: having an opinion contrary to the government’s.

Will Google get the same treatment as Yahoo?

Yahoo! – your PR folks need to do a better job of handling this issue and presenting the case as it is – not defensively and apologetically.

If you don’t want to be a HIPOCRITE you better be prepared to be mostly self-sufficient and not buy ANY foreign products or patronize any company that does business in third world locations or China. many of the businesses you patronize, products you buy, etc…..are involved in child labor and other hideous practices.

Here’s a question for all the arm chair politicians posting their comments here:

Do you or does anyone in your family wear anything made by the Gap, Old Navy, or Banana Republic? how about Nike? how about all those nifty gadgets you love so much? do you think any of the children making those products you are wear or use were abused or neglected by their employers? for that matter, you also need to get rid of most of the stuff in your office (including home office). In short, anything that says, “Made in China” needs to go, otherwise you are justa hipoctite spewing opinions while you sit comfortably in your Chhina)inese made socks (90% of all socks are made in China)

Most everyone posting here is what I would call an “armchair freedom fighter”.

If you really want to make a difference stop wearing any clothing made in china and give-away all your gadgets made in china immediately….good luck with that!

I bet not a single poster here can do that!!

Simply relying on the media for your information is a great way to live in denial.

If it comes down to a choice of turning over information that will lead to the imprisonment of an individual for exercising a fundamental human right, or a choice of not turning that information over and potentially not doing business in that country, the latter choice is the only conscionable one.

You should have known better. If even, for a moment, you thought of the human impact of your decision, you had to have known better. “Empowering” people with all the information of the world means nothing if you then cooperate to silence individuals who exercise their freedom of expression.

I thought the definition of “pygmy” is sadly succinct: “an insignificant person, especially one who is deficient in a particular respect.” In this situation, the actions of individuals at Yahoo! who allowed this to happen were inhumanely morally deficient.

Please, apologize. Please, do everything you can to try and help the situation with regard to the families hurt by your mistakes. And, please, Mr. Callahan, you must go.

Justen Deal

I’ve been using the Yahoo homepage as long as I can remember Yahoo for my personal email for about the last 2 years, and I really like you. But I must tell you I’m seriously considering dropping your services permanently because of the revelations concerning your actions in China. America didn’t become a beacon because we based decisions on greed; we became a beacon because we put principles first. Think right, speak right, act right, be right.

Respectfully,
Bill Knapp

Nonetheless, can we trust you, or not? Don’t tell us the answer, show us.

The Chinese government’s treatment of dissidents is well documented and should be no great surprise to the board members and shareholders at Yahoo. What the devil did you people think the Chinese government would do with the information? Did you think they were going to politely ask him to please not say anything bad about the government, or perhaps reward him for pointing out their shortcomings? I believe to the depths of my soul that the decision makers at Yahoo sold the man out with full knowledge of the repercussions he would face, all for the sake of a dollar.

I find is especially abhorrent that you try to justify these actions by blaming it on the “Chinese Yahoo!”. You are still major sharholders and shareholders do have a say in corporate decisions. It has been said that politics make strange bedfellows, but greed can put you in bed with some ugly folks as well. Instead of selling out to the Chinese, why not stand up to them? Does Yahoo need the customers that badly? Knowing the past actions of the Chinese government in relation to those seeking freedom and justice in China, I believe you put your company in this position by selling out to a Chinese company in the first place. Any one with half a brain and one eye could have seen this coming.

Moral pygmies may have been the strongest thing Chairman Lantos could thing of to represent the character of your actions, but the American public has powerful vocabulay and I’m sure there are more to come. I will no longer use Yahoo and I will urge every friend, relative, co-worker and acquaintance I know to join me in boycotting your company.

You threw a man in jail interested in human rights. I guess we know where Jerry Yang stands if the choice is between human rights or yahoo dollars. Utterly disgusting!!

Now tell me how is Yahoo making this world a better place??

good luck with that.

I’m a stock holder and have used Yahoo for many years. This is what I’m going to do: sell the stock, stop using Yahoo services and urge all my friends to do the same. I want to have nothing to do with a company that takes greed over justice.

I also found your apology insincere. You better back up your apology with some actions!

Shelley T.

Only after Yahoo takes active steps to correct the harm it has done to individuals, families and human rights in China, will I be willing to consider Mr. Yang’s pathetic excuses on this blog.

Obviously, greed for Chinese profits is more important to Yahoo than standing up for human rights. Mr. Yang, do the right thing. Use your power to correct these wrongs.

Kathleen Dichirico

Really it’s more of a guidline than a rule!

When you look around and see the faults of the world and wonder how things go so screwed up look no further than your own actions.

Yahoo has now done even more “services” for its Chinese government master and in the process assisted in the imprisonment of one guilty only of speaking out for individual liberty.

Yang’s argument that actively restricting freedom is promoting freedom is devious and deceptive doublespeak.

Yahoo has done and continues daily to do evil.

Yang, by defending and ordering this intentional past and continuing behavior, shows that he is evil.

If Yang orders Yahoo to do this for foreign authoritarian leaders, imagine what information Yang has ordered Yahoo to provide to American political leaders who also claim unrestricted authority to spy upon us.

I will no longer do anything which generates money for Yahoo. I will no longer click on any search result or advertisement on Yahoo, thus to avoid generating any click charges or register any chargeable ad views.

While you have ‘invested your professional life’ in Yahoo have you forgotten your personal values — if you had any at all. Your actions sacrificed a human being — Chinese journalist Shi Tao — and his family. There is nothing ‘professional’ in this.

I think Michael Callahan and Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang sold out every person that uses Yahoo — both domestic and foreign. I thought Yahoo would place greater moral standings above the almighty dollar. This might sound extreme but in light of the Bush Administrations fascist fear-driven privacy violation policies and other US corporations collusion with this policy I think my feelings are justified. And while you might argue this is a Chinese government issue it goes MUCH further then that. For a long time I had the misconception Yahoo was different. You’ve trashed your VALUES and alienated a loyal customer. Grow a back-bone Mr Yang.

I strongly urge you to re-write it, especially the “indispensable” and “trust” part after YOUR decision to turn the records of several activists over to the Chinese government.

I will no longer have Yahoo as my homepage and will use Google instead. It is a huge disappointment that after using and liking Yahoo for so long it came to this.

How can you sleep at night? I hope you are doing something about getting the men sentenced to 10 years out of prison and you learn to value true freedom of speech without succumbing to pressure from governments that try to stop it.

Sincerely,
Andrea Leon-Grossmann