Originally published August 22 2005
Shareholders urge Cisco Systems to create a human rights policy for China dealings
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A shareholder resolution filed in May charged Cisco with adding human rights to the set of criteria used to certify resellers. Allegedly, Cisco systems in China could have been used to make internet censorship easier for repressive institutions.
Internet equipment maker Cisco Systems is fighting a shareholder action that urges the company to adopt a comprehensive human rights policy for its dealings with the Chinese government, and with other states practicing political censorship of the internet.
"What we want is for them to be a better company, to ensure that their reputation is not in jeopardy and to have the processes in place to prove that they are not complicit in the abuses that are occurring around the world through the use of technology," says Dawn Wolfe, a social research and advocacy analyst at the firm, which prides itself on its socially responsible investments.
A report from the OpenNet Initiative watchdog group last April singled out Cisco for allegedly enabling the Chinese government's notorious "Great Firewall," a filtering system that prevents Chinese netizens from visiting websites that criticize the government.
Cisco's routers, the report noted, form the backbone of China's internet access, and include the power to identify and filter packets based on keyword matches -- a tool typically used for fighting viruses and denial-of-service attacks that also makes internet censorship easier for repressive governments.
But Cisco's Terry Alberstein, director of corporate affairs for the Asia Pacific region, says the company has never helped the Chinese government suppress free speech.
"Cisco does not participate in any way in any censorship activities in the People's Republic of China," Alberstein says.
"We have never custom-tailored our products for the China market, and the products that we sell in China are the same products we sell everywhere else."
The controversy over U.S. businesses' dealings with repressive governments bloomed anew last month when it emerged that Microsoft programmed its MSN Spaces blog-hosting service to prohibit phrases like "human rights," "freedom" and "democracy" from the titles of Chinese blogs and postings, in an apparent bid to curry favor with China's ruling Communist Party.
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