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Yahoo backs Google's move to end censorship in China

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On January 13, 2010, 2:08 PM EST

Yahoo has responded to Google's move yesterday to end censorship in China after discovering a series of attacks that compromised the accounts of human rights activists. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo said it would back Google's decision.

"We stand aligned that these kinds of attacks are deeply disturbing and strongly believe that the violation of user privacy is something that we as Internet pioneers must all oppose," said Yahoo. The company didn't mention whether it was also targeted in the attacks discovered by Google.

It's worth noting that Yahoo sold its Chinese operation to Alibaba.com in 2005, but maintains a 39% financial stake in the company. Microsoft launched a Chinese version of Bing last June, and said there is no indication that any of its mail properties have been compromised.

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User Comments (14)

Post a comment
Wendig0
on January 13, 2010
2:32 PM

This is a good bandwagon to jump on right now. I hope more search providers do the same.

Reply

dummybait
on January 13, 2010
2:59 PM

yeah screw china... tired of buying there crap.

Reply

dummybait
on January 13, 2010
3:02 PM

guess i should edit that last.... when i mean screw china...I mean their government... NOT the poor bastages that live there....

Reply

Guest
on January 13, 2010
4:10 PM

We won't hear any complaints from Microsoft. Looks Like the Chicoms will be stuck with Bing and Baidu.

Reply

oinari
on January 13, 2010
6:56 PM

Wendig0 said:

This is a good bandwagon to jump on right now. I hope more search providers do the same.

Agreed. Although I don't see MS doing anything until a large number of providers already hop on. I hope I'm wrong, but that really does seem like MS's style.

Reply

Puiu
on January 14, 2010
1:30 AM

Yahoo didn't mention anything about the attacks because they already are controlled by the government since they sold their chinese operations.

BTW i also heard that the white house is also giving google their support. i wonder how China is going to respond.

Reply

TorturedChaos
on January 14, 2010
10:23 AM

It says Yahoo is backing Google, but it says nothing about whether or not they are going to try to fight censorship in China with their search engine.

I like their stand, but are they us just blowing hot air??

Reply

Phantasm66
on January 14, 2010
10:44 AM

I visited China a few years back and although it was a wonderful country with a mysterious and grand history, welcoming people and interesting culture, it was very, very clear to me that the people are oppressed and to some degree even brainwashed. There is quite clearly dissatisfaction among the people with the current regime but it is dealt with using harsh and barbaric retaliation. People actually fear to speak out, those that do simply vanish. The presence of the army was felt almost everywhere in Beijing and I actually saw them take away a woman in a big van who shouted out something in protest. People have actually been taught that democracy is just not viable in China and in many cases they believe it.

Chinese hacking groups have been continually attacking all the big companies we know and need, Google, Adobe, Yahoo, the list goes on. These attacks are state sponsored. They put massive firewalls in place to keep "bad" information out of the country, and install software such as Green Dam ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Dam ) on PCs by law to control what people can and can't look at. This is not just stuff like porn but information such as on the tiananmen square protests - they just don't want the people to know the truth.

They are clearly ruled by an oppressive and evil regime that even their own people hate and the west is getting sicker and sicker having to pander to.

Reply

Guest
on January 14, 2010
11:20 AM

Censorship is everywhere and not just confined in China. It's just in different forms that people need to recognize.

Reply

Zeromus
on January 14, 2010
3:22 PM

Hey, just wanted to say thanks for that wiki link. I never knew about a government project that adheres censorship for obviously potential political leashing. If it was up to me given all the resources in the world, China would have been deemed humanely unconstitutional and taken stripped off this planet.

Reply

Tedster
on January 14, 2010
3:39 PM

their, not there. And yes, most of it is crap.

Reply

foxrox
on January 14, 2010
9:54 PM

Way to go, Yahoo. Good job standing behind Google's decision to not be subject to that dang ***** Chinese dictator. He is a ****-tater for sure.

Reply

Archean
on January 15, 2010
2:57 AM

Google exiting chinese market is irrelevant for me; as it will like google trying to shoot chinse censorship ghost through their own skull ........ beside there are more things important than just google in life anway

Reply

Guest
on January 19, 2010
6:32 PM

help uncensor twitter in china @yahoo #uncensorchina [insert reason here]

Reply

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