House panel targets Yahoo

Charging that a top Yahoo! Inc. official provided incorrect information regarding a Chinese human rights case to Congress, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday called on the company’s leadership to appear before the panel.

{mosads}At issue is the case of Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a much-publicized case. The Chinese government had asked for and received information from Yahoo about Shi, including his IP address and the contents of his e-mail. At a 2006 hearing on the case, the company had assured Congress that it did not know about “the nature of the investigation” when it handed over the information.

Earlier this year, however, the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation released documents disputing that assertion.

“Our committee has established that Yahoo! provided false information to Congress in early 2006,” Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) said. “We want to clarify how that happened, and to hold the company to account for its actions both before and after its testimony proved untrue. And we want to examine what steps the company has taken since then to protect the privacy rights of its users in China.”

Yahoo spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the committee’s decision to single out the company was “grossly unfair and mischaracterizes the nature and intent of our past testimony.”

The hearing, to which Yahoo’s chief executive, Jerry Yang, and the company’s senior vice president and general counsel, Michael Callahan, have been summoned, is scheduled for Nov. 6.

“Last year, in sworn testimony before my subcommittee, a Yahoo! official testified that the company knew nothing ‘about the nature of the investigation’ into Shi Tao, a pro-democracy activist who is now serving 10 years on trumped-up charges,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said.

“We have now learned there is much more to the story than Yahoo let on, and a Chinese government document that Yahoo had in their possession at the time of the hearing left little doubt of the government’s intentions," Smith said. "U.S. companies must hold the line and not work hand in glove with the secret police.”

Schmaler argued that Yahoo and the committee have held “repeated meetings and conversations” and that the panel knows that company officials were truthful.

“This issue revolves around a genuine disagreement with the committee over the information provided,” Schmaler said. “We had hoped that we could work with the committee to have an open and constructive dialogue about the complicated nature of doing business in China.”

Schmaler stated that the issue involves “how to best balance the democratizing forces of open commerce and free expression with the very real challenges of operating in countries that restrict access to information.”

Yahoo, according to the spokeswoman, is engaging with other companies and the human rights community to address such issues and is treating them with “the gravity and attention they demand.” In addition, the company is also “actively engaged with the Department of State to assist and encourage the government’s efforts to deal with these issues on a diplomatic level.

“We believe the answers to these broad and complex questions require a constructive dialogue with all stakeholders engaged in a collaborative manner,” Schmaler said. “It is our hope that the committee will approach the hearing in that same constructive spirit.”