A senior Yahoo! has admitted that he had more information about the imprisonment of Chinese dissident Shi Tao than he originally told a US congressional investigation. The FT has details:
Michael Callahan, Yahoo's executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement ahead of a congressional hearing next week that he "realised" that Yahoo had additional information about the nature of the probe into one of its users, Shi Tao, a journalist now serving a 10-year prison sentence in China, months after he testified that Yahoo had "no information" about the investigation.
Essentially Callahan says it was a mix-up - bad communication between himself and Chinese staff over a number of documents in a language he couldn't understand. However, it's important to know that Yahoo! didn't willingly make this U-turn; it comes after work by the Dui Hua Foundation, an organisation promoting human rights issues between China and America.
Rebecca MacKinnon, who has been following the case carefully, says it's entirely plausible. The "Influence Peddler" blog, meanwhile, says that US companies have to 'walk a very narrow line'.
You may have realised that I'm fascinated by the actions of technology companies in China: it seems to me not only to deal with a massive human rights issue, but also deals with fundamental difficulties at the libertarian heart of the web.
Is there more news on the way?
