Internet freedom: Tort and technology

This article was originally published in The Economist on July 21st, 2011

ASK a human-rights campaigner in Beijing what hope of vindication is offered by China’s judicial system, and the likely response is a cynical shrug. America’s courts could provide a more interesting avenue—especially to those whose complaint is the use of information technology to restrict freedom.

In May and June human-rights lawyers in America filed two suits alleging that executives at Cisco Systems, a California-based tech firm, sold China’s government equipment customised to help track dissenters online. Only one of the plaintiffs is an American citizen; more than a dozen are Chinese. Cisco denies all wrongdoing. Read more

September 4, 2011 | Filed Under For The Economist | Comments Off