Talking Rights

For the first time, a human rights group has used US law to sue an Internet company for contributing to torture. On April 18, the World Organization for Human Rights alleged that Internet user Wang Xiazoning was arrested in September 2002 on charges including “incitement to subvert state power.”Chinese authorites partly based the charge on information provided by Yahoo, which Wang was using for his email account. WOHR is using the 217-year-old Alien Tort Claims Act and the 1991 Torture Victims Protection Act, which allow suits against U.S. companies for allegedly aiding in human rights abuses overseas. According to the Washington Post:

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com The suit says that in 2001, Wang was using a Yahoo e-mail account to post anonymous writings to an Internet mailing list. The suit alleges that Yahoo, under pressure from the Chinese government, blocked that account. Wang set up a new account via Yahoo and began sending material again; the suit alleges that Yahoo gave the government information that allowed it to identify and arrest Wang in September 2002. The suit says prosecutors in the Chinese courts cited Yahoo’s cooperation.

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