Friday
Oct092009
UPDATED Iran: Did Yahoo Give Names of 200,000 Users to Authorities?
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 20:12
The Latest from Iran (9 October): Almost Four Months
Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
UPDATE 1900 GMT: Yahoo! has issued a further statement: “The allegations in the story are false. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with any Iranian officials, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government. Yahoo! was founded on the principle that access to information and communications tools can improve people’s lives, and Yahoo! is committed to protecting and promoting freedom of expression and privacy. To learn more about our human rights efforts, please visit: http://humanrights.yahoo.com.”
The original source of the claim, the Iranian Students Solidarity Organization is very active with a blog --- the story is 3rd or 4th on the current page. It has about 30,000 members. In this case, the ISSO is claiming that it had a source inside the Iranian Government who was at the meeting between Yahoo! and the Iranian authorities.
UPDATE 1300 GMT: Yahoo! has posted this denial on Twitter: "The...allegations are false. No Yahoo! representative met w/ any Iranian officials or disclosed user data to Iranian government."
--
Normally we do not feature uncorroborated stories, but the allegations of the Iranian Students Solidarity movement are so serious that we think they merit attention. The post was translated and sent to lawyer Richard Koman:
On 27th of Shahrivar [Qods Day, 18 September], when Iranians demonstrated again on the streets, the Iranian authorities, in addition to blocking many Internet sites all over Iran, blocked or severely limited access to Yahoo and Google. Google did not react and its problem was resolved with 48 hours, but Yahoo sent a representative to Iran’s telecommunications ministry, to resolve the issue.
During the meeting with Iranian Internet and telecommunications authorities, Yahoo representatives were asked to provide Iranian authorities with the names and data on all Iranian Internet account holders in exchange for removing the block/filter on the Yahoo website.
The Yahoo representative said that currently there were more than 20 million e-mail accounts and providing such a list would be a very time-consuming process. The IRGC [Islamic Republic Guardian Corps] replied by asking the representative to provide e-mail accounts of those individuals who have Yahoo accounts and are publishing blogs.
Apparently this made Yahoo’s task a bit easier, and the Yahoo representative agreed to provide such a list within a matter of hours. Upon the receipt of such a list, which included approximately 200,000 e-mails, by the Iranian authorities, the regime immediately unblocked access to the Yahoo.com website. The list went back as far as five years and included active and inactive accounts and blogs.
It is necessary to mention here that the Iranian Yahoo is managed by Yahoo Corporation in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur).
Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
UPDATE 1900 GMT: Yahoo! has issued a further statement: “The allegations in the story are false. Neither Yahoo! nor any Yahoo! representative has met with or communicated with any Iranian officials, and Yahoo! has not disclosed user data to the Iranian government. Yahoo! was founded on the principle that access to information and communications tools can improve people’s lives, and Yahoo! is committed to protecting and promoting freedom of expression and privacy. To learn more about our human rights efforts, please visit: http://humanrights.yahoo.com.”The original source of the claim, the Iranian Students Solidarity Organization is very active with a blog --- the story is 3rd or 4th on the current page. It has about 30,000 members. In this case, the ISSO is claiming that it had a source inside the Iranian Government who was at the meeting between Yahoo! and the Iranian authorities.
UPDATE 1300 GMT: Yahoo! has posted this denial on Twitter: "The...allegations are false. No Yahoo! representative met w/ any Iranian officials or disclosed user data to Iranian government."
--
Normally we do not feature uncorroborated stories, but the allegations of the Iranian Students Solidarity movement are so serious that we think they merit attention. The post was translated and sent to lawyer Richard Koman:
On 27th of Shahrivar [Qods Day, 18 September], when Iranians demonstrated again on the streets, the Iranian authorities, in addition to blocking many Internet sites all over Iran, blocked or severely limited access to Yahoo and Google. Google did not react and its problem was resolved with 48 hours, but Yahoo sent a representative to Iran’s telecommunications ministry, to resolve the issue.
During the meeting with Iranian Internet and telecommunications authorities, Yahoo representatives were asked to provide Iranian authorities with the names and data on all Iranian Internet account holders in exchange for removing the block/filter on the Yahoo website.
The Yahoo representative said that currently there were more than 20 million e-mail accounts and providing such a list would be a very time-consuming process. The IRGC [Islamic Republic Guardian Corps] replied by asking the representative to provide e-mail accounts of those individuals who have Yahoo accounts and are publishing blogs.
Apparently this made Yahoo’s task a bit easier, and the Yahoo representative agreed to provide such a list within a matter of hours. Upon the receipt of such a list, which included approximately 200,000 e-mails, by the Iranian authorities, the regime immediately unblocked access to the Yahoo.com website. The list went back as far as five years and included active and inactive accounts and blogs.
It is necessary to mention here that the Iranian Yahoo is managed by Yahoo Corporation in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur).
Reader Comments