The Wall Street Journal reported today that Yahoo, Microsoft and Google in combination with a group of human rights and public interest organizations have agreed upon a common set of principles to guide their business in countries that restrict free speech and expression. In the past, the three companies have found themselves criticized by rights groups and the US Congress for putting profit over principles and human rights, particularly with regards to China.
Update: the Global Network Initiative website went live today but offers little additional information. It does feature a complete list of participants.
An excerpt from the WSJ article:
Under the new principles, which were crafted over two years, the technology titans promise to protect the personal information of their users wherever they do business and to “narrowly interpret and implement government demands that compromise privacy,” according to the code. They also commit to scrutinizing a country’s track record of jeopardizing personal information and freedom of expression before launching new businesses in a country and to discussing the risks widely with their executives and board members.
The principles are the starting point for a new effort, called the Global Network Initiative (site is still empty at this point), which commits the companies to “avoid or minimize the impact of government restrictions on freedom of expression,” according to a final draft of documents obtained by The New York Times.
In addition to laying out the code of conduct, the initiative will provide a non-governmental forum for the companies and human rights groups to jointly resist demands for censorship, and will also establish a system of independent auditors to rate the companies’ conduct. Check out the statement on the Google Blog for more information.
Prominent human rights organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China, have been involved in setting up the guidelines, which was about 18 months in the making. However, the effort is already being criticized by other human rights activists. (Update: also by Amnesty International)
“After two years of effort, they have ended up with so little,” said Morton Sklar, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA. “It is really very little more than a broad statement of support for a general principle without any concrete backup mechanism to ensure that the guidelines will be followed.”
The World Organization for Human Rights USA was the one which sued Yahoo for giving Chinese officials information that led to the arrest of two journalists. The lawsuit has since been settled for an undisclosed amount. Also interesting to note is the relationship between Yahoo and Alibaba, the leading Chinese internet company which controls the Yahoo brand in China and is approximately 40% owned by Yahoo.
The members of the initiave hope to attract more companies to join. Two European telecommunications companies, France Télécom and Vodafone, are already considering signing up in the near future, and presumably many more will consider after the guidelines go public.
Why isn’t Facebook and Myspace part of this group?
just wanted to give proper highlight to the centerpiece of the article.
“After two years of effort, they have ended up with so little,” said Morton Sklar, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA.
“It is really very little more than a broad statement of support for a general principle without any concrete backup mechanism to ensure that the guidelines will be followed.” (meaning that there is nothing in writing, contractually binding. There money is not where our mouth is)
title of this post should have read: “Goog, Micro and yah put there hot air behind global bad breath restriction.”
RealityLocator- from what i know hot air floats and is weightless.
Some people have questions about Yahoo! and there are some misconceptions about it.
Facts about our deal with Yahoo! !
Not a bad move. But all these companies won’t wait a second to pass users’ personal data if asked by the Governments.
In the end, as usual, money will be the guiding factor for any large corporate business practices. By stating that they will narrowly interpret the rules set out for them by the offending countries only means that they will continue business as usual. Until these companies are willing to, en masse, extricate themselves from countries that flagrantly violate human rights for their citizens, all of the flowery prose in the world won’t change the perception that these corporations, while rightfully concerned about profit, are willing to sell their souls to deal with repressive governments.
None of these companies are hurting (maybe except Yahoo! due to their mismanagement woes) and can afford to push their agendas and products elsewhere around the world. If they all continue to improve their products and rely on their brand names and overall ingenuity, all of their companies can grow without bedding down with dictators and murderers.
Way to go GYM! a common cause – “don’t kill the revenue stream!”
Will you update whenever that guidelines site is up and running? Should prove to be interesting…
Wow, it took them two years to agree on a domain name and then put up “coming soon”. Granted it is harder and harder to out-think the cybersquatters…
I wonder if this is just a way for them to establish a third party organization for the civil liberties groups to sue, thus shielding the big boys from those pesky free speech and privacy advocates.
Under the guise of a “global plan”, they basically stated that they’re committed to doing business in any country, despite the oppression. The almighty dollar. The one God. The only flag these hypocrites should fly.
at least they agree on somethin