China treats Internet ‘addicts’ - and dissidents - sternly

[Bent_Bladi]

wow, that's all i have to say.... just wow

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'Yahoo betrayed my husband'

November 6, 2007 -- The head of the American internet company Yahoo delivered a personal apology today to the tearful mother of a Chinese journalist who was jailed using email information provided by the firm to secret police in Beijing.

At a hearing on Capitol Hill, the Silicon Valley company faced trenchant criticism over its "spineless and irresponsible actions" in helping the Chinese authorities to identify Shi Tao, a dissident who sent sensitive emails using a Yahoo account under a pseudonym.

Members of Congress are furious with the company for passing confidential files to the Chinese authorities – and for giving misleading testimony when the case was first raised in Washington last year.

Addressing Mr Shi's relatives who were sitting directly behind him, Yahoo's chief executive Jerry Yang pledged to do everything in his company's power to help free the jailed reporter, adding: "I want to personally apologise for what they and their family are going through."

Yahoo's co-operation with the Chinese authorities has raised questions over the ethical challenges faced by multinationals operating under authoritarian regimes.

Mr Shi, a reporter for a business publication, was unmasked when he sent a Yahoo email to a pro-democracy group outside China. His message contained a dictat from the Chinese government banning journalists from writing about the 15th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Tom Lantos, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, said those who lift the veil of secrecy in China pay a heavy price.

"Such is the case with a young journalist named Shi Tao, who is languishing in a Chinese dungeon on a 10-year sentence because he pierced the veil and a huge, US-based multinational company practically led the police to his door."

He added: "If you think our witnesses today are uncomfortable sitting in this climate-controlled room and accounting for their company's spineless and irresponsible actions, imagine how life is for Shi Tao."

The internet company initially pleaded ignorance of the implications of its actions. At a hearing in February last year, its general counsel Michael Callahan told congressmen that the company was unaware of the nature of the investigation when police asked for access to email files.

But a document subsequently came to light in which Beijing's state security bureau told the search giant that it was investigating the illegal provision of "state secrets" to foreign entities.

Mr Callahan apologised for the "confusion" caused by his testimony, saying he was not in possession of all the facts. But he insisted that the US company still did not know it was unmasking a political dissident.

"There remains a disagreement over whether the reference to 'state secrets' was significant enough to tell Yahoo anything material about the case," he said. "We did not know that the case related to a journalist, dissident activity or that it was a political case."

Since the incident, Yahoo has sold a majority stake in its Chinese operation to a local company, thereby giving up management control.

The scandal has become a talismanic case in a broader debate over the issues facing internet operators in China. Search engine providers such as Google and Microsoft have been lambasted for complying with state censorship in limiting the responses to search queries.

There was a degree of sympathy for Yahoo from Adam Smith, a Democrat congressman whose district includes Microsoft's Seattle headquarters. Mr Smith said co-operation with the authorities was not a simple black-and-white decision.

"What laws can companies chose not to obey?" he asked. "If it's a law on the books ... when can they say 'we're not going to follow it'?"

Congressmen corner Yahoo over jailed Chinese dissident

[Al-khiyal]

November 14, 2007 -- The internet giant Yahoo settled a lawsuit yesterday in relation to allegations that it helped China in a crackdown on two journalists.

Yahoo's decision to settle came a week after the company was criticised in Congress, with one congressman accusing the company of being moral pygmies.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed and Yahoo did not admit fault but the company agreed to pay legal costs and apologise to the journalists' families.

Yahoo had earlier denied cooperating with the Chinese government in the prosecution of dissidents by helping to identify them. The company claimed it had no choice other than to comply with a request from Beijing to share information about the online activities of the journalists. Yahoo handed their email records to the Chinese government.

The journalists, Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao, are serving 10-year jail sentences. Wang was accused of "incitement to subvert state power" after he emailed electronic journals advocating democratic reform and establishment of a multiparty system to replace the present authoritarian state. Shi was charged with passing on information that was designated a state secret. They both sued Yahoo in April.

Wang's wife Yu Ling claimed Yahoo had turned over information that helped identify her husband and that he and others were "subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including arbitrary, prolonged and indefinite detention, for expressing their free speech rights and for using the internet to communicate about democracy and human rights matters".

In Congress last week Tom Lantos, chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, told Yahoo: "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies."

After being informed of the settlement Lantos said yesterday: "It took a tongue-lashing from Congress before these hi-tech titans did the right thing," he said. "What a disgrace."

The case on behalf of the journalists and other dissidents arrested was brought by the Washington-based World Organisation for Human Rights USA.

After the congressional hearing, Jerry Yang, the chief executive of Yahoo, met members of the journalists' families, and apologised to Shi's mother.

Yang said yesterday: "After meeting with the families, it was clear to me what we had to do to make this right for them, for Yahoo and for the future. We are committed to making sure our actions match our values around the world." Yang, who was joint founder of the California-based company in 1994, said it was establishing a "human rights fund to provide humanitarian and legal aid to [online] dissidents".

The journalists' lawyer Morton Sklar, said Yahoo's will to fight the lawsuit evaporated after the congressional hearing.

Sklar said: "There was a dramatic change in their position and that was strong incentive to settle. They did not want to be on the wrong side of this issue."

The World Organisation for Human Rights said after the settlement the journalists are "serving 10-year prison sentences as a direct result of the information Yahoo provided to Chinese authorities" and that while the identities of only a few of those arrested have been made public, "it is suspected that hundreds more have been similarly affected".

Alibaba.com, China's biggest online commerce firm, has run Yahoo's mainland China operations since Yahoo bought a 40% stake in Alibaba in 2005. Yahoo says its stake doesn't give it control of the firm. Shi, a former writer for the financial publication Contemporary Business News, was jailed under state secrecy laws for allegedly providing an email which contained notes about a government memo on media restrictions to foreigners.

Yahoo forced to apologise to Chinese dissidents over crackdown on journalists

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Behind the Great Firewall of China

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China bans electric shock treatment to cure internet 'addiction'

July 14, 2009 -- China's ministry of health has banned the use of electric shock treatment to cure internet addiction. The move follows growing concern in the country about young people's compulsive use of chat rooms, websites and online gaming – but also the methods used to wean them offline.

Doctors released the first diagnostic definition of internet addiction late last year, based on a study of more than 1,300 intensive users. It says addicts are those who spend at least six hours online a day and have shown at least one of a range of symptoms – including yearning to get back online, fear of social contact, irritation and difficulty concentrating or sleeping.

Other experts argue that the definition is far too general and that many non-addicts qualify under it because the criteria are so vague. But critics warned that some of the "cures" promoted to anxious parents were as worrying as the original problem. A notice on the ministry's website said that the safety of the technology was not clear so use of the therapy should be stopped immediately.

Today's ban follows reports that Dr Yang Yongxin from Linyi City's psychiatric hospital in Shandong province was using electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). According to the Beijing News, Yang said he had created the unique "xingnao" ("brain-waking") therapy which involved sending a small current through the brain. He added that the stimulation might cause pain but was very safe and would not harm children in any way.

An earlier report by the Information Times claimed patients received electroconvulsive therapy if they broke any of the centre's rules, which included eating chocolate, locking the bathroom door, taking pills before a meal and sitting on Yang's chair without permission. It said parents had to sign a contract acknowledging their child would be given ECT before admission.

The ministry of health asked Shandong's health department to stop the use of "electrical stimulation" for internet addiction while experts investigated. The researchers said both the safety and the effectiveness of the method was unclear. The ministry added that people wanting to conduct medical research required official approval as well as full consent from patients. But there are said to be hundreds of internet addiction treatment centres across China and others are believed to use similar methods.

The centre's public relations chief said it had stopped using electric shock treatment for internet addicts due to the pressure of public opinion, but was still treating them through other means. According to the Beijing News, its reporter was unable to reach Yang. When the reporter called the centre posing as a consumer, staff said the treatment fee for internet addiction was 5,500 yuan (£500) a person every month. Asked whether or not electric shock therapy would be used, the employee said it should be called "pulse therapy" and was only used in special circumstances.

Kong Lingzhong, who runs a website on ending internet addiction, said that electric shocks are usually used on mentally ill patients. He added: "Most experts in the field do not agree with this therapy. No one knows whether there are side-effects or not."

Tao Ran, who runs a well-known centre for curing internet addiction in the suburbs of Beijing, said: "There are about 300 million net users in China and 200 million of them are young people. More net users means more chances to be addicted to the internet. Young people are weaker in controlling themselves and when they find the computer games gripping they will quickly become addicted." He said his clinic treated around 200 patients a month for addiction, 80% of whom were aged 15 to 18 and 90% of whom were male. Most required around three months of treatment. "We treat them in two ways: with psychological treatment and medicine. About 60% of the patients need medicines because they have other symptoms like depression, anxiety," he said.

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Case study: Electric shock therapy in China for internet 'addiction'

July 14, 2009 -- Teng Fei, 17, was given electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) for internet addiction at a centre in China. When Teng Fei's mother told him that his dad had been taken ill the horrified teenager rushed straight to hospital. But it was a ruse and within hours he underwent the painful treatment. He was given ECT many more times in the following weeks. "It was really painful – just like a needle piercing through my brain," he said.

Teng Fei insists he never had a problem in the first place and does not believe that internet addiction exists. "I admit the internet can be quite alluring and sometimes I would use it all day, but if I had other things to do – like playing basketball – I wouldn't use it at all," he said. "Then my mum saw the adverts on television. They demonised the internet and after watching them she believed I was sick and it was very serious."

He was given ECT for the first time when he resisted admission to the clinic. "I can't remember how many times [they gave me shocks], but it must have been dozens. They would let me rest for a while then give me another. The session lasted about half an hour," he said. "I struggled and tried to get up and they said it meant I still did not agree to stay so they gave me more shocks for another half an hour … I agreed to stay because I really couldn't stand any more of it."

He received ECT six or seven times at the hospital, mostly for a few minutes at a time. "I think at the beginning they just wanted to create fear so you would follow orders. The shocks were punishment if I did anything wrong," he said. When he tried to escape, he was subjected to another half hour of ECT. Doctors also gave him antidepressants and traditional Chinese medicine. Each day the teenagers would have morning lessons which included parents and urged them to believe in and co-operate with the programme, followed by drills in the afternoon. Teng Fei's parents spent about 14,000 yuan (£1,250) for his treatment: a 7,000 yuan monthly fee, a 2,000 yuan fine for running away and a 5,000 penalty payment for ending treatment early.

"The treatment should last four months, but my father started to think it was all a con," he said. "He realised that in the classes no one could express opinions contrary to what they were told. Also, when I told him how painful the shocks were and he saw himself how young people grimaced before they went into that room, his heart ached for me." Teng Fei added: "I don't think it helped at all. I didn't have internet addiction before, so I acted exactly as I did before I went in there. I still use the internet now and my parents don't really interfere."