Taiwan - Email users in Taiwan with a yahoo.com account routinely see the email tag "http://cn.mail.yahoo.com" if they access their account via Taiwan's Yahoo, called Yahoo Kimo. Yesterday, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) spokeswoman Chow Mei-li "lambasted the US company, saying it had a notorious record of currying favor with Beijing," asking users to drop their Yahoo email account until the issue is resolved.


In November, 2008, The U.S. Congress "sharply rebuked" Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and the company over Yahoo's role in landing a Chinese journalist named Shi Tao behind bars. Shi was sentenced to 10 years in 2005 after being convicted of "divulging state secrets" by emailing to an overseas website a Chinese government order forbidding media organizations from marking the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Yahoo provided information which linked back to Shi.

Chow said yesterday that the TSU would continue to ask users to stop using Yahoo email services as long as Yahoo continues "attaching its Chinese Yahoo Web site address to its US Yahoo e-mail users in Taiwan."

According to Yahoo Kimo, the attachment of that particular Chinese Yahoo address is directed by the user's selected language and country operating the system.

Said Yahoo Kimo public relations manager, Kelly Hsu, "If the users do not want the ad, they can alter the content preferences for their account."

See Taipei Times.