Snip from New York Times story:
A Chinese political prisoner and his wife sued Yahoo in federal court Wednesday, accusing the company of abetting the commission of torture by helping Chinese authorities identify political dissidents who were later beaten and imprisoned.
The suit, filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act, is believed to be the first of its kind against an Internet company for its activities in China.
Wang Xiaoning, who according to the suit is serving a 10-year prison sentence in China; his wife, Yu Ling; and other unnamed defendants seek damages and an injunction barring Yahoo from identifying dissidents to Chinese authorities.
Link, here’s a Reuters item, here’s the AP’s item, and here’s the Washington Post‘s item.
Wired News reporter Luke O’Brien, who covered the story as it developed in this earlier piece, has an update today. Snip:
I just spoke with former dissident Harry Wu, who helped arrange Yu’s travel to the United States. He told me Yu Ling is leaving tomorrow morning to go back to China. Today she wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. She walked the whole thing.
Link to post, with PDF of the legal complaint filed in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Update: ArsTechnica has a post, too: Link (Thanks, Glyn)
Previously on BoingBoing: