Human Rights Group Slams Facebook Over China Strategy
PC Mag, 3 June 2011
By Chloe Albanesius
Human Rights Watch on Friday demanded that Facebook craft specific human rights safeguards before entering the Chinese market after an executive said recently that the social-networking site might allow “too much … free speech” for some governments to handle.
In a May 10 letter to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg that HRW released publicly today, Kenneth Roth, executive director of the organization, urged Facebook not to “collude with Chinese authorities in censoring political speech or help them retaliate against Facebook users who want to benefit from the openness and connectivity that Facebook promotes.”
Roth’s letter was prompted by an April interview that Facebook lobbyist Adam Conner gave to the Wall Street Journal.
“Maybe we will block content in some countries, but not others,” Conner told the paper. “We are occasionally held in uncomfortable positions because now we’re allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven’t experienced it before.”
HRW said in its letter that it was concerned by Conner’s remarks since the “exchange of political views and ideas is inextricably intertwined with the availability of Facebook in scores of countries.”
“Facebook has enabled millions of people to exercise their rights in the Middle East,” Arvind Ganesan, business and human rights director at HRW, said in a statement. “It would be a tragedy if Chinese users find themselves in danger for speaking their minds on Facebook or because they ‘like’ human rights.”
Facebook is currently banned in China. Earlier this year, a deal between Facebook and Chinese search engine Baidu on a joint social-networking Web site apparently fell apart when the site was taken down by Chinese authorities.
“Right now we’re studying and learning about China but have made no decisions about it or how we will approach it,” a Facebook spokesman said Friday.
HRW had several specific questions and requests regarding Facebook’s possible entry into the Chinese market. The group urged Facebook not to require real-name registration since the Chinese government uses that data to “easily identify—and punish—critics.”
“In such circumstances, an option for some form of online anonymity is essential if Facebook is to truly empower the openness and social networking that are at the core of its corporate mission,” Roth wrote.
The organization was also concerned about how Facebook would respect the rights of users if a deal with Baidu came to fruition since Baidu is the most censored search engine in the region. HRW also wanted to know how Facebook would protect users outside of China from efforts by the Chinese government to censor anti-government sentiment.
“For example, if a user outside of China posts information critical of the Chinese government, what will Facebook do to ensure that efforts by Chinese censors to remove the posts in China do not end up affecting access to the posts by users globally?” Roth asked.
HRW said Facebook has been in contact with the organization about the letter, but has not responded to its specific questions and concerns.
Tech companies have faced challenges in recent years as they evaluate their strategies in China.
Last year, Google said that attacks originating in China had tried to obtain Google intellectual property and access the Gmail accounts of human rights activists, prompting Google to stop censoring its search results in the country. It also resulted in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling on companies to reject Internet censorship. Google initially directed all Chinese traffic via Hong Kong, but later introduced a hybrid approach in order to remain in the region.
More recently, China denied any involvement in a Gmail hack that compromised the user names and passwords of personal accounts belonging to senior government officials, activists, and journalists.
Other tech giants have come under fire for cooperating with Chinese censors.
In 2008, a 2002 internal PowerPoint presentation prepared by Cisco for the Chinese government was revealed and found to include a slide that said Cisco would be willing to help the Chinese combat groups that speak out against the government, an undertaking known as the Golden Shield Project. At the time, Cisco told a congressional panel that the company was “appalled” by the move and did not support it.
Congressional hearings in 2006, meanwhile, revealed that Yahoo had provided information to Chinese officials that led to the imprisonment of online activists for several years. Yahoo has since settled and set up a fund to help cyber dissidents obtain legal aid.
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
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