Yahoo Gives China Apology

Yahoo admits it had information that led to the 2004 imprisonment of a Chinese dissident.

The Financial Times has reported that Michael Callahan, Yahoo’s executive vice president and general counsel, has given a statement in which he has acknowledged that the company had information regarding the imprisonment of Chinese dissident Shi Tao in 2004 that he’d never revealed. He’d originally said that Yahoo had “no information” about the investigation.   Lawmakers had asserted that Yahoo had given Beijing police Shi’s details, including his e-mail account, IP address log-on history, and the contents of his e-mails, and that the company had been served with an order by the Chinese government.   That order was leaked by a human rights group.    “Months after I testified before two House subcommittees on Yahoo’s approach to business in China, I realized Yahoo had additional information about a 2004 order issued by the Chinese government seeking information about a Yahoo China user,” Callahan said in the statement.   The Financial Times said that he is expected to testify that a lawyer for Yahoo in Asia failed to brief him on the order because the lawyer did not believe it was significant.