In a recent speech at Georgetown University, Yahoo’s Jerry Yang goes out of his way to assure peole the company had made a break with it’s pockmarked past of collaboration with Chinese Internet control efforts. From the San Jose Mercury News:
Yahoo has also set up a human rights fund for humanitarian and legal aid to dissidents, overseen by prominent rights advocate Harry Wu, and Yang has taken an active role in lobbying for the release of Chinese political prisoners.
On Thursday he met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrats who are among the most outspoken critics of China’s recent crackdown on Tibet.
Yahoo strives “to be the best corporate citizen we can be” and that includes “trying to convince and influence other parts of the world about free expression,” Yang said in the Georgetown speech.
Yang, in a brief interview after the speech, said the company was trying to monitor that censorship but was not sure what recourse the company has. Yahoo now has no direct business presence in China, but does have a stake in Alibaba Group, a Hong Kong-based holding company for several Chinese Internet ventures.
See also: “Yahoo’s Yang: No easy answers in China Net-censorship debate” from CNET
