Press freedom group Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) claims that Yahoo! China censors search results as directed by the Chinese government. A search for 'Free Tibet', for example, will not produce any results.
Search engine Google has previously been blocked by the Chinese Government because it refused to censor results, but has since purchased a large share in Baidu, a Chinese search site that filters out content deemed to be subversive.
RSF has written to Lorne Crane, US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, and Earl Wayne, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, to ask that a code of conduct be introduced for US firms selling products abroad.
"The US government is supposed to be at the cutting-edge of the fight for online freedom, especially since passage of the Global Internet Freedom Act," said the group.
"Yet it places no restrictions on private-sector activity - even when firms work with some of the world's most repressive regimes."
More news from dotJournalism:
Chinese find web news more reliable
Chinese journalist begins hunger strike
China blocks press freedom site
See also:
RSF: http://www.rsf.org
Google China: http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/
Baidu: http://www.baidu.cn/
Yahoo! China: http://cn.yahoo.com
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