Yahoo will give millions to a settlement fund for Chinese dissidents, decades after exposing user data

But in the years after that, its non -profit partner, and the Laogai Research Foundation, issued a bad managing the fund, as it spent less than $ 650,000 – or 4 % – on direct support to the opponents. Most of the money, instead, was spent by the late Harry Woo, the former Chinese defector, who led Loghai, on his projects and interests. A group of dissidents prosecuted in 2017, not only Laogai’s names, but also Yahoo and senior members of the leadership team during the time concerned; At least one person from Yahoo has always sat on the YHRF and was rating on his budget and activities.

The defendants – which, in addition to Yahoo and Laogai, included the Impressa Legal Group collection, a law firm that worked with Laogai – they were fought to pay the six Chinese opponents who submitted this lawsuit, with five of them are scheduled to receive $ 50,000 for each of the main prosecutors who received $ 55,000.

After the legal fees and other expenses, the rest will go to a new fund to continue the original YHRF mission of supporting individuals in China who were imprisoned for their speech. The Fund will be managed by a small non -profit organization, the humanity of China, which was founded in 2004 by three participants in the Chinese democracy Movement in 1989. China granted $ 2 million of cash assistance to Chinese proportions and their families, funded by individual donors in the first place.

This help is often vital; Political prisoners are released repeatedly only after years or contracts in prison, and sometimes with health problems and without skills to find fixed work in the modern labor market. They are still subject to monitoring, visiting and punishing them by state security, leaving local employers more wanting to employ them. It is a “difficult situation”, as Shu, one of the prosecutors, previously told Massachusetts Institute Technology Review –“Feeling of isolation and this type of deficit that we feel … If this lawsuit can be more effective, if it can help restart this program, this is really meaningful.” We also wrote in our original story,

“Show lives in low -income housing in his hometown in Chungzings, in western China. He is Debu, another prosecutor, his wife, and his adult, in the first place, a small, monthly, 1500 yuan (210) monthly allowances that the local government provides to ensure that he maintains his views.

The terms of the settlement tape are based on more than just a quick statement to the media, but Times Wang, the prosecutor’s lawyer, previously told him Massachusetts Institute Technology Review Technology About the importance of the fund. In addition to decisive financial support, “it is a source of rest to them [the dissidents] Knowing that there are people outside China standing with them. ”

Massachusetts Institute Technology Review Technology Take an in -depth look at the case and the mismanage of YHRF, which you can read here.