China Renews Google’s License

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | Craig Maccubbin

By David Barboza | The New York Times | July 9, 2010

SHANGHAI — The Internet giant Google said Friday that the Beijing government had renewed its license to operate a Web site in mainland China, ending months of tension after the company stopped censoring search results here and moved some operations out of the country.

Google made the announcement early Friday morning in California in a blog posting by its chief legal officer, David Drummond.

“We are very pleased that the government has renewed our I.C.P. license,” Mr. Drummond wrote referring to an Internet content provider license. “And we look forward to continuing to provide Web search and local products to our users in China.”

Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, said Friday that the renewal “was the outcome we were hoping for.”

Mr. Schmidt, who told reporters on Thursday that the company expected to obtain the renewal, said that he did not know China’s decision would come so soon and was informed of the decision early Friday. He had expected the decision to come down within 24 to 48 hours.

“We’ll keep doing what we’re doing, and they’ll keep doing what they’re doing,” he said Friday at the Allen & Company media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

If the license had not been renewed, Google would have effectively been forced to shut down its Web site, google.cn, in China. With the renewal, however, Google can continue offering limited services in China and direct users to the company’s uncensored Hong Kong-based Chinese language search engine, google.com.hk. Hong Kong, a former British colony that is now a special administrative region of China, is governed separately from the mainland. Under the current setup in mainland China, users can conduct a Google search and see the results, but often they cannot open the links.

The license renewal is a sign that Google, while uncomfortable with operating in China and censoring its search results on Beijing’s behalf, is determined to keep a foot in China, which now has more Internet users than the United States.

Google announced in January that it had suffered China-based cyberattacks on its databases and the e-mail accounts of some users. The company said it would also stop censoring search results, which it had agreed to do when it first began to operate in China several years ago. The Chinese government insists that its citizens’ access to the Internet be stripped of offensive and some politically sensitive material.

In March, Google closed its Internet search service in China and began directing users to the uncensored Hong Kong site.

Many analysts were stunned by the moves and questioned whether Google was acting prudently in risking its spot in the world’s largest Internet market.

Just a few weeks ago, however, Google signaled a softer approach to Beijing by saying that it had stopped automatically sending users in mainland China to its Hong Kong site. The company said it had created a Web page that offered users in mainland China a choice, rather than automatically directing them to its Hong Kong site.

The move, though seemingly insignificant, seemed to comply better with Beijing’s strict regulations.

“This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page,” Mr. Drummond wrote at the time.

Renewal is required annually for Google’s license, which officially expires in 2012.

“This is a reasonable move by the government,” Jake Li, an Internet analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Shenzhen, told Bloomberg News. “Google has brought itself into compliance with regulations, so there’s no good reason to deny them the license.”

Even before the censorship issue came to the fore, Google was struggling in China to attain the same market dominance it has achieved in many other countries.

The hottest Internet companies in China are those like Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba — fast-growing local companies that are making huge profits.

Google is not the only American giant that has had trouble in China. Yahoo and eBay have failed to gain significant traction here. And Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked by the government.

Pakistan, Turkey Target Google, Other Sites

By Tsering

Flickr Creative Commons | The Wandering Angel

By Tom Wright, Marc Champion And Amir Efrati | The Wall Street Journal | June 26, 2010 

A move by Pakistan to begin monitoring for anti-Islamic content on major websites—including those run by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.—is the latest sign that censorship looms as a threat to Internet companies in a number of countries.

The Pakistan announcement on Friday came a day after a communications minister in Turkey, which has blocked thousands of sites including Google’s YouTube, said the video site was “waging a battle against the Turkish Republic” and suggested that the situation could change if Google were to register and pay taxes.

Authorities in Pakistan on Friday said they would start monitoring major Internet search engines, including Google and Microsoft Corp.’s Bing.com, as well as the e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. The move follows an action last month against social-networking site Facebook Inc., which Pakistan blocked for several weeks after it hosted a page in which users could post pictures of the Prophet Muhammad. The portrayal of Muhammad is forbidden by Islam, and the ban was lifted when the site removed the page.

A YouTube spokeswoman said it was aware of the actions announced in Pakistan and said it will work to keep its services accessible there. “Google and YouTube are platforms for free expression, and we try to allow as much content as possible on our services and still ensure that we enforce our content policies,” she said.

She added that the company remains “disappointed” about the continuing ban on YouTube in Turkey “against a safe and lawful international service enjoyed by millions of people around the world.”

Regarding Pakistan’s decision, a Microsoft spokeswoman said, “Government decisions to restrict online content should respect the rights of individual users and be adopted through open, transparent and publicly accountable processes.” A spokeswoman for Yahoo said the company “was founded on the principle that access to information can improve people’s lives, and we are disappointed to learn about the monitoring and possible blocking of our sites in Pakistan.” Amazon declined to comment.

Google and other Internet companies have helped some Asian countries, such as India and China, enforce certain standards online by removing material that governments find objectionable or violate local laws. YouTube blocks access to videos in Thailand that might be seen to insult the king—which is against the law in that country—and Nazi imagery that is illegal in some parts of Europe.

Earlier this year Google stopped self-censoring its Internet search results in China after complaining it had been hit with a cyber attack originating from that country. China’s own Internet filters now censor Google’s searches.

A number of countries in the Islamic world, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, have banned Internet content in the past for being sacrilegious. But those countries have authoritarian governments that closely monitor the Internet and the media. In Pakistan, where Islamists have vied with secular-minded politicians since the country’s creation in 1947, the implementation of such bans is fraught with difficulties.

On Friday it remained unclear how the state-run Pakistan Telecommunication Authority would be able to monitor millions of links on the Internet to ensure blasphemous material wasn’t appearing on sites like Google and Yahoo.

In Turkey, Google has been the most prominent victim of a 2007 law that has resulted in the closure of thousands of websites, putting the government under pressure in recent weeks as newspapers and opposition parties have begun to cry foul over the restrictions being placed on ordinary web users.

In May 2008, a Turkish court shut down access to Google’s YouTube due to material posted on the site that was found to be insulting to the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Related

U.S. Presses Syria on Web Freedoms

Earlier this year Turkey’s communications ministry extended the ban to other Google sites, a move that appeared to be triggered by a separate tax battle with the U.S. giant. As a result, Turks suddenly lost direct access to GoogleMaps and other sites, as well as to YouTube. However, many ordinary users have been able to circumvent the closures.

The opposition People’s Republican Party, usually a fierce defender of Ataturk’s honor, on Thursday attacked the government in parliament for creating what one parliament member called a “culture of censorship” in the country, including Internet censorship.

Some of Turkey’s top leaders have sought to distance themselves from the Internet closures. President Abdullah Gul earlier this month sent out a public message through his account on micro-blogging site Twitter.com, saying he “cannot approve of Turkey being in the category of countries that bans YouTube [and] prevents access to Google.”
Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com, Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com and Amir Efrati at amir.efrati@wsj.com

Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Amnesty International Campaign

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Yahoo! has become aware of a campaign launched by Amnesty International, calling on Yahoo! for the release of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning. We are deeply concerned about their continued imprisonment and have and will continue to use those diplomatic forums available to us to advocate for the release of dissidents imprisoned for sharing their views on-line.

At Yahoo!, we strongly believe that the complex global issues of privacy and free expression are best addressed with a collective approach, which is why we are co-founding members of the Global Network Initiative (GNI). As such, we welcome engagement and constructive solutions from all of our stakeholders, including NGOs such as Amnesty.

Transparency is also important, so we would like to make sure that our users are aware of our efforts and have the opportunity to communicate with us directly. We are reaching out to Amnesty directly (as we have done in the past) and are sending letters to those users who took the time to write us and share their concerns. In the interest of transparency, we are also sharing our response to Amnesty with you. Please see below for our letter, with details of the steps that we have taken. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments, or via e-mail. We look forward to the dialogue, and to continuing to work with all of our stakeholders to protect and promote privacy and free expression in the ICT sector.

***
Dr. Morton Winston
Address Redacted

Dear Dr. Winston;

Thank you for your interest in learning more about Yahoo!’s commitment to human rights around the world.

Yahoo! was founded on the principle that promoting access to information can improve people’s lives and enhance their relationship with the world around them. The continued imprisonment of Shi Tao is of great concern, particularly given our deep commitment to human rights and desire to be a leader among technology companies in this area.

Yahoo! continues to actively push for the release of Shi Tao, Wang Xioaning and other Chinese dissidents. We have asked the U.S. government to use its leverage to create a global environment where Internet freedom is a priority and where people are no longer imprisoned for expressing their views online. Our former CEO Jerry Yang has met personally with senior State Department officials, and in 2008 wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging the State Department to redouble its efforts to secure the release of imprisoned Chinese dissidents. Secretary Rice subsequently raised this issue with senior Chinese officials, and since then we have seen Members of Congress echo this call for U.S. diplomatic leadership. We also wrote a letter in December of 2009 to U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and spoke with Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner in May of 2010, urging the State Department to continue to advocate for the release of Shi Tao, Wang Xioaning and other Chinese dissidents. We hope these continuing efforts will both intensify and bear fruit.

Yahoo! has not owned or had operational control over Yahoo! China since 2005. However, through our minority stake as well as our membership on the board of Alibaba (which owns and operates Yahoo! China) we have been able to successfully encourage some concrete changes so that Chinese citizens can have a greater understanding of the risks and benefits of going online in China. For example, Yahoo! China search pages contain a notice announcing that certain search results may be limited as a result of Chinese law and the Yahoo! China Mail registration page notes to users that the service is subject to Chinese law.

Yahoo! is committed to protecting human rights and freedom of expression around the world, including in China. As a result, we have partnered with noted dissident and human rights activist Harry Wu and the Laogai Research Foundation to establish the Yahoo! Human Rights Fund. This fund provides humanitarian and legal support to political dissidents who have been imprisoned for expressing their views online, as well as assistance for their families. We also provide financial, humanitarian and legal support to the families of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning.

As you are aware, in order to incorporate lessons learned into future business practices, we created Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program in 2008 (http://ycorpblog.com/2008/05/07/business-and-human-rights/). This first of its kind initiative represents a fundamental corporate commitment to human rights. Among other concrete actions, the BHRP conducts a formal assessment of the potential human rights impact of business decisions. Yahoo! then designs and implements mitigation strategies that limit potential risks to free expression and privacy. To further raise awareness about these critical issues and to contribute to the development of concrete solutions, Yahoo! has established international fellowships at Stanford University and Georgetown University to advance the work of journalists and scholars exploring the complex issues at the intersection of technology, free expression, privacy and global values. In 2009, we also launched the Business & Human Rights Summit, an annual stakeholder engagement and shared learning event. You can learn more about Yahoo!’s individual and collective efforts at Yahoo! at http://humanrights.yahoo.com.

At Yahoo!, we believe that the cause of human rights is more effectively advanced through collective action. As a result, Yahoo! is a founding member of the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder group of companies, civil society organizations (including human rights and press freedom groups), investors and academics committed to protecting and advancing freedom of expression and privacy online. As you know, given Amnesty’s earlier role in the GNI, GNI formally launched in November of 2008. Since then, Yahoo!, along with fellow participating companies, has agreed to incorporate GNI’s Implementation Guidelines and Governance, Accountability and Learning Framework into our business operations. The Implementation Guidelines and Accountability Framework hold us accountable to our commitments through a number of concrete mechanisms, including independent third-party assessments. You can learn more about the GNI, including details about governance and accountability mechanisms, at http://globalnetworkinitiative.org.

At Yahoo! we will continue to explore how to do more to protect freedom of expression in the markets where we operate. As you know, an important component of the GNI process and of Yahoo!’s approach to these issues is continuous engagement with stakeholders, including NGOs like Amnesty International. We encourage Amnesty to join us in the GNI as we create concrete solutions to the privacy and free expression challenges in the ICT sector; we would welcome the opportunity to have a constructive dialogue.

I appreciate your interest in this important issue, and invite you to contact me directly with your recommendations, and to learn more about Yahoo!’s actions and GNI’s progress.

Respectfully,
Ebele Okobi-Harris
Director, Yahoo! Business & Human Rights Program

Moving On

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

Today, Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program is taking a break from regularly scheduled programming to say farewell to Michael Samway, Yahoo!’s vice president & deputy general counsel, head of Yahoo!’s international legal team and founder of the Business & Human Rights Program. Michael’s dedication, commitment to human rights, and tenacity created and launched the first of its kind Business & Human Rights Program here at Yahoo!. After over a decade of leading with integrity and passion at Yahoo!, Michael is leaving Yahoo!  to set sail.  And that’s not just a metaphor—Michael and his family are actually going to sea – living aboard their boat, teaching their kids and remaining active in the social and human rights causes to which they have dedicated much of their time.

We are thrilled for Michael and his wonderful family, and are so very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him and learn from him.  We must admit, however, to being very sad to see him go. Michael has been a mentor, a friend, an inspiration, a voice of reason and a cat-herder par excellence. He also has, it must be acknowledged, truly spectacular hair.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him will miss Michael very much, and below are some thoughts and stories from a few people, both inside and outside Yahoo!, who wish Michael and his family all the very best in their new adventure.

BB King, I’m Moving On

Harry Wu | Founder and Executive Director, Laogai Research Foundation

Dear Captain Ahab:

I wish you will be great at your new job. When you catch the whale please inform me right away. It is very important to celebrate. But, be careful, safety is number one.

Bob Boorstin | Director, Public Policy, Google Inc.

Good bye to Michael, we’ll miss you so much

Especially your calm and deft lawyerly touch

Again and again you’ve earned your laurels

And proved you’re no pygmy without morals

When the fate of our global initiative lay on a roll of the dice

You swooped in and took command like Crockett from Miami Vice

When push came to shove, you stood up for what was right

And never let the goal out of your keen sight

And now your wisdom is clear through all the commotion

As you take your family out into the ocean

Far away from the rigors of business and the hassles it begot

No new cases for you, just loved ones and that big ol’ yacht

Sail well, our friend, may your direction be true

And remember — big hint — land is brown and sea is blue

Have fun, enjoy the breeze and lay back in the sun

We’ll read your blog, see you soon and envy all your fun

Nicole Kempton | Washington Director, Laogai Research Foundation

Michael Samway has literally transformed the fortunes of our organization, and made the work we do possible.  The Laogai Museum would not exist without him, but more importantly, the Yahoo Human Rights Fund would not have been able to help so many individuals in China without his dedication and hard work.  Although we’re jealous of what promises to be the adventure of his life, he will be greatly missed!

Dunstan Hope | Managing Director, ICT Practice, Advisory Services, Business for Social Responsibility

Michael has been an incredible inspiration to all of us involved in the Global Network Initiative. I remember Michael making an instant impression in our first exploratory meetings in early 2006. Michael’s commitment to protecting human rights and understanding how human rights risks and opportunities arise in the internet age shone through instantly and has been with us ever since. Michael’s calm but committed approach will be missed.

Ena Harris | Director, Education for Change

My wish for you is:

“An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth.”

― Bonnie Friedman

Enjoy life and love and family, Michael!

Chris Samway | Corporate Strategy & Business Development, Gap Inc.

My brother Michael has always been my moral compass, an inspirational role model in work and life, and a true friend and mentor. He can also play just about any Jack Johnson song you can think of on his guitar- which is cool. Yahoo!’s been lucky to have him.

Colin Maclay | Managing Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

I have had the great pleasure of interacting with Michael over the past four years in always unknown and often unfriendly territory. Throughout the ups and downs, he has been the consummate team player – deeply thoughtful and strategic in dealing with all manner of challenges; unfailingly (and ridiculously) modest when it comes to his substantial and diverse contributions; actively supportive of the personal and professional well-being of his colleagues both inside Yahoo! and elsewhere; and not only committed to the enterprise and willing to do everything he can to advance it. He has given a master class in both leadership and friendship to those around him. These skills will no doubt serve him well on the high seas, although I am certain that he will return both humbled and more able than ever – especially in otherwise arcane arts such as navigation, blues guitar, and relaxing.

Fair winds and following seas!

Richard Harris III | Director, Breakthrough Collaborative

Michael is a great dude. Besides being one of the few people in the world who went to Duke that I actually like, Michael has so many of the aspirational qualities that a great man should have: a sharp intellect, a great sense of humor, a beautiful family, the ability to make people feel at ease in eleven languages, fluency with a musical instrument, the right amount of gravitas to command the high seas but still look cool on a bicycle, sharp collars without the use of stays, and a broad and deep enough sports knowledge to “just have a beer” with anyone.

He is one of those rare people you meet who is really interested in your story about your garden, your trip, or how you were trying to get in the building to meet your wife that time. No matter who he’s with – lawyers, blues musicians, Igbo people, or the Faz wait staff, every group of people feels like he is “one of them”. He’s someone who can both listen and talk the right amount of time, so that you feel heard but feel like you learned a lot.

And above all, he’s a genuinely nice guy.

I look forward to getting to know you and your family better, and to our friendship growing after the boat returns. But for now, here’s to exciting travels!

Ferial Ara Saeed | Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University

Best wishes to a class act — Michael’s intelligent approach and sophistication will be sorely missed.

Jaleh Samway Bast

Miguel, you model hard work, motivation, commitment, and dedication.  You embody loyalty, kindness, brilliance, compassion, and integrity.  You were fortunate to have experienced yahoo! and yahoo! was fortunate to have experienced you.  Enjoy safe travels as you live this next adventure in your life, mom and dad taught you well. I love you. Me.

Eugene Y. Lao | Regional General Counsel, Asia Pacific, Yahoo! Inc.

Michael is an exceptionally talented lawyer, inspirational leader and principled human being, but above all, a dear friend. Replacing this uncommon combination of attributes is nearly impossible. Unless I get a smart dog.

The Miskas

Michael is the type of an individual that most of us strive to become – he is smart, kind, thoughtful, considerate, disciplined and determined to accomplish his goals.  However, his strongest trait is that he is a true “blues man/sailor” who understands and listens to not only his head and heart, but also to his soul.  Sail on!

Pierre Landy | Regional General Counsel, EMEA, Yahoo! Inc.

Thanks Michael for being such a great mentor and friend, not necessarily in that order!

One of my favorite things about you is your ability to delegate and completely let go, as evidenced by the note from you below:

“Pierre, this is entirely your call as to how you organize this conference – You are after all in charge of Europe. I just would like to suggest that you organize it in Paris, for two days, from Tuesday to Thursday, at a Hotel that costs no more than a 150 euros per night, with workshops every morning, a maximum of one team activity during the conference which should look like it’s a serious thing such as visiting Versailles, and then one guest speaker – for the rest, you’re totally free to organize as you see fit, so long as you check with me first”.

Bon vent!

Danny O’Brien | Internet Advocacy Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists

I think it was Buckminister Fuller who theorized that the craziest of visionaries are always prompted to follow the setting sun, and that’s why so many of them had piled up against the Californian coast, ambitious and optimistic but still not quite brave enough to throw themselves into the sea and sail off into the ever-receding future. I am delighted, and unsurprised, that Michael has escaped the iron grip of the land. Fair winds and following seas!

Amaka Okobi

It was a pleasure meeting Michael. He is everything  you said. I wish him and his family all that God has for them. I am glad I had the blessing of meeting him before he left.

Jeff Krilla | Principal, Public Law & Policy Strategies, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State)

In my four years at the State Department when any internet-related issue would make it to the seventh floor, every senior State Department official would ask “What does Samway think?”   Now, every time I watch the movies “The Perfect Storm” or “Waterworld” I will ask the same question.

Many thanks, Michael, for your leadership, innovative thinking and compassion on the issue of Internet freedom.

I look forward to following the exploits of Team Samway on their seafaring blog as closely as I followed the BHRP blog!

Anchors aweigh!

Nicholas Crouch | APAC Senior Manager for Corporate Security & Safety, Yahoo! Inc.

I remember Michael and Jerry Yang shopping in an Egyptian antiques shop on the Middle East trip. As security we would always keep within earshot of the guys we were looking after. Jerry ended up buying some large piece of Egyptian art and haggled very successfully with the Egyptian shop owner who agreed on a pretty fine price. After Jerry had paid for his newfound treasure, the shop owner turned to him and said, “But how can you possibly fit this in your hand luggage?” Michael, being the astute humourist, quipped, “Don’t worry, he has his own plane”. A nanosecond later he realized that perhaps this choice of words was not the best as he was next in line to pay for his newly found Egyptian treasure. Needless to say Michael’s haggling was not as successful as Jerry’s. . .

Mark Bench | World Press Freedom Committee

While I’ve only known Michael through the Global Network Initiative for the last 3-4 years, it’s been sufficient to gain a great respect for his diligence, perseverance, and travel lust!  Because he lived with his family abroad–Chile for 2 1/2 years–and elsewhere, he’s gained a respect for other cultures and peoples.  His spoken Spanish is outstanding, so that if he’s ever caught in the wilds of the Latin American rain forests, I feel certain that he’ll be able to negotiate himself out with panache.  He’s as comfortable in the offices of some of the most prestigious law firms in the United States as he is encouraging a first year student at Georgetown.  We wish him, his wife, their son and daughter the very best on their seemingly quixotic sailing journey.  Perhaps their greatest task will be home [err--boat] schooling their children.  They will be citizens of the world, those lucky kids!  Keep reading good books and sharing titles with us.  We’ll miss you on the GNI, but will never forget your pioneering spirit and remarkable leadership in shepherding the organization through the shoals of getting us set up as a legal entity.  Bon voyage, good friend.

Arvind Ganesan | Director, Business and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch

The first time I met him, Michael told me about how he had done human rights work in Chile about a decade earlier and worked with this other person who was also very interested in human rights.  He asked me if I had ever heard of her, and said that it was funny he asked.  She works down the hall from me and has worked for me over the last five years.  When he finally came to DC, he got a chance to meet her after years.

Jennifer Samway

Hats off (or should I say on) to Michael for his amazing tenure at Yahoo! over the last decade.  His work has been both challenging and rewarding in many ways too numerous to recount in this short note of appreciation.  His dedication and commitment in upholding the highest standards for both himself and his team have been realized.  The trust and respect he has earned from his many co-workers has been demonstrated through all of the kind words, emails, farewell speeches, and thoughtful gifts that have been sent during his last few weeks at Yahoo!.

It has been a wonderful time for our family to be a part of the Yahoo! experience over the years.

We will miss the friendships that have been gained, but hope that you will all follow along with us in our new adventure out in the open water.  It is time for Michael to put all of those wonderful leadership skills he has developed to good use as captain of his own ship and destiny.

Thanks to Michael and Yahoo! for starting this adventure, now it’s time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. . .

Michael Samway, Sr.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Mike.  Now that his corporate image is no longer a consideration, and as a dad proud of both his person and achievements — I’d like to share this with his colleagues.

Homa Samway

Michael always was determined to be a perfectionist and complete whatever he was doing/involved in and to do it right. He is also very kind, giving, and dedicated. I am a very proud mum and blessed.

Reflections on Yahoo!’s 2010 Business & Human Rights Summit

By BHRP

Christine Bader and Sarah Labowitz | Vasanth Rakasi

Guest Post, by Christine Bader, Advisor to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on business and human rights

(See here for video highlights of the Summit, here for photos of the Summit, and here for the 2010 Flickr Gallery!)

As I pored over my notes on the flight home from Tuesday’s second annual Yahoo! Business & Human Rights summit, three themes emerged — context, scale, and education — as did a few reflections about this moment in the tech industry’s history.

Many speakers at the summit urged us to consider technology’s intersection with free expression and privacy in its broader context.  Kum Hong Siew, former member of Singapore’s parliament, stressed the importance of understanding the offline regulatory situation in a country before honing in on the government’s approach to the internet and social media.  Kathleen Reen from Internews reminded us that we’re not discussing mere technical issues, but challenges that are situated within human rights and the rule of law.

Context is critical at both macro and micro levels.  Scott Rubin from Google discussed the difficulty in deciding whether to take down YouTube content, which requires assessing the intention of the uploader.  For example, violent footage could be taken down in accordance with a site’s Terms of Service, but might be critical if revealing excessive force by police.

Scale was considered from a number of perspectives:  global vs local, mass market vs niche, small vs big.  Companies grapple with how to reconcile global policies with local laws and norms; national governments struggle to manage companies’ international reach and content.

Elia Varela Serra believes that demand will grow for niche products like Maneno, the blogging platform she co-founded for sub-Saharan Africa, which enables local language content and easy uploading for areas with poor connectivity.  On the other hand, Sameer Padania of Witness.org tried to build a video sharing hub for human rights activists but found that many of them used YouTube, so switched his focus to ensuring appropriate space for human rights-related content in mass market tools.

The Global Network Initiative (GNI) has forged personal relationships that have proved invaluable when crises occur.  But the GNI won’t always be comprised of the same founding individuals, and aims to grow in terms of membership and the number of people its members touch.  Companies currently take a case-by-case approach to the human rights challenges they face — but that can’t be sustainable for a business like YouTube, to which users upload 24 hours of video every minute.

All of the panels emphasized the importance of education:  about human rights, about the risks of online life and activism, and about the tools that can protect them like UltraReach and AnchorFree.  Kim Pham of AccessNow, Reen of InterNews and Sarah Labowitz of the U.S. State Department were among those who discussed their initiatives to educate constituencies, from activists to journalists to foreign service officers respectively.

I’ve observed and advised GNI since its inception, so have seen firsthand the tech industry’s coming to terms with its impacts on human rights.

The industry is exceptionally dynamic in terms of its products and services, the ways in which its offerings are employed by a wildly diverse population, and its relationships with other companies, governments, and civil society.

But its experience with regard to human rights is not unique.  Many other sectors, most notably extractives and apparel, have gone through a similar process of

1. realizing their impacts on human rights, positive and negative;
2. taking responsibility for those impacts;
3. recognizing that they’ll be more effective collaborating with peers and stakeholders than going it alone;
4. piloting solutions and discussing how to scale them up; and
5. understanding that respecting human rights is a necessary and permanent requirement, but one that will take countless twists and turns — so prioritizing relationships and principles rather than specific prescriptions.

By this time next year, the industry will no doubt be grappling with new technologies employed in new ways by new users, new regulatory and social expectations, new players and different incarnations of old ones.  The Global Network Initiative and Tuesday’s event are terrific examples of that fifth stage above, that I hope and expect will support ongoing collaboration and effective solutions.  Watch this space.

Christine Bader is Advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative on business and human rights.

Yahoo! Celebrates World Press Freedom Day

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

On Monday, May 3, Yahoo! will celebrate World Press Freedom Day. Go to yahoo.com on May 3, click on the icon on the Yahoo! logo at the top of the page, and you’ll be linked to a site with information about the history of World Press Freedom Day, profiles of journalists from around the world, and information about a few organizations that are working to keep access to information free and open around the world. You can also learn about events like Yahoo!’s second annual Business & Human Rights Summit on May 4, and about Global Voices Online’s Summit in Chile, on May 6-7.

Mark your calendar, and check it out on Monday!

Mr. Yang goes to Washington

By Ebele Okobi-Harris | Director, Yahoo! BHRP

On April 26th, Jerry Yang was a featured speaker at President Obama’s Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. To read his speech, and see video of his remarks, check out the blog post at Yodel Anecdotal.

Jerry Yang Speaks at Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship

By BHRP

AP Photo | J. Scott Applewhite)

By David Alexander | Reuters | April 26, 2010

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama launched a new effort on Monday to build business and social ties to the Muslim world, but analysts said the need for progress on big issues like Middle East peace would overshadow the initiative.

Obama hosted a two-day Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship that brought together about 250 successful entrepreneurs from more than 50 countries, most with large Muslim populations, fulfilling a pledge he made in his Cairo speech to the Islamic world last June.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke opened the gathering by challenging the entrepreneurs to take “the tremendous success that all of you have had individually and expand it throughout the Islamic world.”

Obama will address the summit at the end of the first day to underscore his commitment to “deepening our engagement around the world with Muslim-majority communities,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said.

While the summit was widely viewed as a positive step that demonstrated follow-through on the Cairo speech, analysts said Obama ultimately would be judged on his handling of key issues in the Muslim world — the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Iran’s nuclear program and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In some ways Cairo is not going to be fulfilled until you get grander solutions to some of the big geopolitical problems,” said Juan Zarate, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an ex-deputy national security adviser to former President George W. Bush.

“The president is going to be judged by his ability to move those big issues much more so than whether or not he hosts a conference at the White House,” he said.

Obama has struggled to advance many of those issues. His effort to revive the Middle East peace process has been hampered by Israeli settlement activity, and his attempts to engage Iran over its nuclear program have been rebuffed.

SENIOR OFFICIALS, PRIVATE EXPERTS

In addition to Locke, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other senior U.S. officials were participating in sessions alongside private sector experts like Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus and Arif Naqvi, head of Abraaj Capital, the largest private equity firm in the Middle East.

The aim was to bring together successful entrepreneurs from different countries, venture capitalists, development bankers and other business experts to discuss ideas and share experiences with a view toward creating support networks that would help promote development in the region.

Yang, in a luncheon address, said entrepreneurs needed an entire ecosystem to flourish, including education, capital and research and development. He said he saw increasing signs of a willingness in the Middle East to support entrepreneurs, noting Yahoo’s recent acquisition of the Arabic-language email service Maktoob.

The White House has urged groups outside the government to take advantage of the summit by organizing related events. That has spawned more than 30 other sessions by groups such as the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, the Arab Empowerment Initiative and the Middle East Youth Initiative at the Brookings Institution.

Observers and participants said the success of the event ultimately depended on whether it produced concrete results — financial and otherwise — after it ended.

“What kind of networks does it establish? What kinds of funds will come out of it? What kind of … concrete recommendations for legal reforms that need to take place in certain countries?” said Ehaab Abdou of the Middle East Youth Initiative, which is participating in an event on using entrepreneurial techniques to address social challenges.

Obama planned to announce some new financing to support entrepreneurship, but administration officials made clear the government wants to be seen not as a funder but as a catalyst bringing together entrepreneurs with potential investors.

Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, announced 13 partnerships aimed at supporting entrepreneurs in the Muslim world with education and programs to encourage market opportunities and financing.

(Additional reporting by Diane Bartz, Editing by Paul Simao and Cynthia Osterman)

Censorship Cases Revive Net Freedom Bill

By BHRP

By Tom Risen | National Journal | April 2, 2010

In the wake of high-profile Internet censorship cases overseas, some in Congress are renewing their calls for U.S. regulation. But some companies are continuing to call for self-regulation, fearing possible restrictions on doing business in the future.

New Jersey Republican Chris Smith, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reintroduced the Global Online Freedom Act last month to support companies like Google as they face censorship pressure in foreign markets. He first introduced the bill in 2006.

Since then, Google’s defiance against Chinese censorship and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Internet freedom platform have built momentum on the issue and helped lawmakers reach consensus, according to Jeff Sagnip, Smith’s press secretary.

Smith’s bill would establish an Office of Global Internet Freedom in the State Department to identify repressive countries, and it would make U.S. companies answerable to the attorney general if they collaborate with requests to take part in censorship or divulge personally identifying information.

“By creating an independent office in the State Department that focuses on Internet freedoms, it would simplify the question ‘who do I call?’” Sagnip said. “There’s a lot of momentum on it this year, as opposed to 2006, when there weren’t as many cases of censorship. The bill’s goal is not to inhibit companies seeking work overseas but to give them a legal foundation.”

The degree of violations that could merit punishment under the bill include the allegations made against Cisco Systems of modifying equipment to be used for Chinese censorship. Sagnip said this bill or another may be amended to deal with European-based Nokia Siemens Networks, which has been accused of supplying Iran with equipment also meant for censorship.

When Smith first introduced the bill four years ago, companies like Yahoo were monitoring abuse independent of the government. Yahoo and other Internet heavyweights co-founded the Global Network Initiative in 2008 along with other corporations, nonprofits and universities. Today, the company is wary of potential restrictions on what countries it could or couldn’t do business with, and to what extent.

“While the goals set forth by the sponsors of GOFA are noble, the bill’s scope could ultimately mean that companies will have to cease providing information services in some countries,” said Yahoo spokeswoman Amber Allman. “Yahoo will continue working with Congress on this legislation, to ensure that its goals can be achieved and that companies can continue to bring transformative technology to people in all parts of the world.”

Sagnip said China’s hack of Google and Iran’s suppression of protesters last summer were signs that self-regulation is not enough.

“Everyone was resistant to intervening with legislative effort,” Sagnip said. “Unfortunately, we walked away from 2009 thinking, ‘OK, it’s even worse now.’ Hence, they might need teeth — or that could be the wrong word. Rather ‘legs,’ or ’standing.’”

Smith recently partnered with Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., to form the Global Internet Freedom Caucus, a bipartisan group of lawmakers who will advocate for Internet freedom laws. The Senate followed about two weeks later, creating a similar bipartisan group led by Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Ted Kaufman, D-Del.

“What I see is that both sides of the aisle are looking for an avenue, and that could be a path for some congressional action,” Sagnip said.

Some Yahoo email accounts hacked in China, Taiwan

By BHRP

By Lucy Hornby and Alexei Oreskovic| Reuters | April 1, 2010

BEIJING/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Yahoo email accounts of some journalists and activists whose work relates to China were compromised in an attack discovered this week, according to rights groups and foreign correspondents, days after Google said it would move its Chinese-language search services out of China because of censorship concerns.

Several journalists in China and Taiwan found they were unable to access their accounts beginning March 25, among them Kathleen McLaughlin, a freelance journalist in Beijing. Her access was restored on Wednesday, she told Reuters.

The compromised accounts included those of the World Uyghur Congress, an exile group that China accuses of inciting separatism by ethnic Uighurs in the frontier region of Xinjiang.

“I suspect a lot of information in my Yahoo account was downloaded,” the group’s spokesman, Dilxat Raxit, told Reuters on Wednesday. He said the email account, set up in Sweden, has been inaccessible for a month.

“A lot of people I used to contact in Lanzhou, Xi’an and elsewhere have not been reachable by phone for the past few weeks,” he said, adding that he had used the Yahoo email account to contact them in the past.

Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times in Beijing said on Wednesday that his Yahoo Plus account had been set, without his knowledge, to forward to another, unknown, account.

In late 2009 and early this year, several human rights activists and journalists whose work related to China had discovered that their Gmail accounts had been set, without their knowledge, to forward to unfamiliar addresses.

Google cited the Gmail attacks in January, when it announced a hacking attack on it and more than 20 other companies. It cited those attacks and censorship concerns in its decision to move its Chinese-language search services last week to Hong Kong.

A source at the time told Reuters that Yahoo knew it had been a target of attacks and discussed them with Google before Google went public.

It was not immediately clear whether those incidents were related to the latest security breaches sustained by users of Yahoo mail.

Yahoo did not comment on the nature of the attacks on its accounts, or whether they were coordinated or isolated incidents.

“Yahoo! condemns all cyber attacks regardless of origin or purpose,” spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek said in an email response to a Reuters query.

“We are committed to protecting user security and privacy and we take appropriate action in the event of any kind of breach.”

CHINA PARTNERS

Yahoo’s direct involvement in China has been limited since 2005, when it transferred control of its online operations to the Alibaba Group, a Chinese Internet company in which Yahoo owns a 39 percent stake.

Yahoo maintains a research and development facility in Beijing, but the company does not have any role in the day-to-day operations of the Yahoo China website, or maintain email servers in China. Email accounts tied to China’s .cn domain are managed by Alibaba, which has servers in mainland China, a Yahoo spokeswoman said.

Despite Yahoo’s limited direct involvement in China, analysts consider the company’s China assets to be among its most valuable.

Clayton Moran, an analyst with The Benchmark Company, said he saw limited risk to Yahoo’s Chinese assets from censorship and privacy issues, with the bigger risk relating to investor enthusiasm for the Chinese Internet market in general.

“If you see a pullback in the Chinese economy, the Chinese Internet, or if multiples contract because investors get less excited about the China opportunity, then Yahoo’s valuation will have a significant impact,” Moran said.

China’s regulatory and political environments have been sources of consternation for Yahoo in the past.

Yahoo was criticized by the U.S. Congress when it released to Chinese authorities information relating to the email account of Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist who was arrested in 2004, before Alibaba took over Yahoo’s China operations. Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in jail for revealing state secrets.

After Google’s January announcement about cyber attacks originating in China, Yahoo said it was “aligned” with Google’s position, a statement that its Chinese partner, Alibaba Group, called “reckless”

Google’s announcement of the hacking attacks drew unprecedented outside attention to cyber-security and China’s Internet controls, used to limit discussion of topics deemed sensitive or threatening to “social stability.”

China’s control of the Internet and media has intensified under the current leadership and reflects a lack of understanding of the Chinese public, said Hao Xiaoming, a China media expert at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Singapore.

“China is going back rather than going forward in terms of information and control. That reflects the lack of confidence in the (current) Chinese leaders,” Hao said.

“China’s Internet has become a controlled Internet, an internal Internet rather than linked internationally. It defeats the whole purpose.”

(Additional reporting by Melanie Lee in Shanghai; Editing by Ron Popeski and Sugita Katyal)