Robber Barons of the Internet
Trampling over other people in pursuit of profit is nothing new. The robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries did it with aplomb. Human nature has not changed. Yesterday’s lashing of Yahoo in Congress shines a little light on the robber barons of our industry. The complicity of Yahoo and other companies in the Chinese repression of free speech and the jailing of dissidents is an abomination. I cannot think of a reasonable excuse for such activities on the part of these companies.
I’ve preached capitalism and the power of the marketplace in this spot from day one, but everyone must realize that “free speech” is the engine that drives capitalism and the marketplace. Without the free exchange of ideas the marketplace ceases to work and capitalism fails. A free exchange of ideas is THE founding idea of the Internet, to say nothing of the United States. Yahoo and their like grew in this country because of ideas. Without free speech and a free exchange of ideas these companies would not exist.
The statements by the executives from Yahoo in yesterday’s hearings were disingenuous, at best. Democrats and Republican alike are to be congratulated for their strong performances against such an obvious assault on our founding ideals. I fully endorse the bill before congress to “criminalize cooperation by US technology companies with foreign governments that could use information to crack down on democracy activists.” (WSJ, 11/7/07, pp A1 & A14) The fact that Yahoo executives refused to do so specifically indicates to me that they knew what they did when the turned over their files to the Chinese government.
The strongest possible discipline against those who performed the acts in question and those with corporate oversight is required to demonstrate the gravity of their actions.