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TECHNOLOGY Wednesday 12 april 2017

Yahoo accused of mismanaging fund for dissidents in China

MICHAEL LIEDTKE about $13 million of the the world,” Yahoo vowed
AP Technology Writer fund enriching himself and in a November 2017 state-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A pursuing other projects tied ment announcing the
lawsuit accused Yahoo of to his interests. fund.
breaking a financial prom- Only $700,000 has been ALLEGED MISMANAGE-
ise it made to Chinese dis- doled out to Chinese dis- MENT
sidents almost a decade sidents who had been im- The new lawsuit argues Ya-
ago as penance for help- prisoned for expressing their hoo instead used the fund
ing the Chinese govern- opinions online, the reason as “window dressing” to
ment find and jail other ac- Yahoo bankrolled the fund, help shield the company
tivists. according to the lawsuit. from further ridicule and re-
The complaint, filed Tues- Yahoo declined to com- solve other lawsuits.
day in a Washington, D.C., ment. Meanwhile, Yahoo turned
federal court by a group The plaintiffs want Yahoo to a “blind eye” to Wu’s reck-
of Chinese dissidents, con- replenish the fund and to less spending, even though
tends that Yahoo misman- pay unspecified damages. company executives had
aged a $17 million fund set The suit arrives at a deli- been warned about the
up to provide financial aid cate time for Yahoo, which abuses as far back as 2010,
to activists. is preparing to sell its online according to the com-
EMBROILED IN CHINA operations to Verizon Com- plaint.
Yahoo created the human munications for $4.5 billion. This Jan. 14, 2015, file photo shows a sign outside Yahoo’s head- Among other things, the
rights fund in 2007, days af- LECTURED BY CONGRESS quarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. complaint alleges that Wu
ter U.S. legislators roasted The unflattering portrait Associated Press paid himself and his wife
the company for providing drawn in the lawsuit repre- more than $1 million, spent
authorities with information sents yet another blotch on about $4 million buying real
that led to the imprison- Yahoo’s record in China. gressional hearing. nounced the $17 million estate in Washington and
ment of two Chinese dissi- Yahoo’s role in fingering “While technological- fund as part of a settle- more than $800,000 on his
dents, Wang Xiaoning and Wang and Shi subjected ly and financially you are ment that ended lawsuits own legal bills, including a
Shi Tao. the Sunnyvale, California, giants, morally you are related to its role in the im- case alleging sexual ha-
The complaint alleges that company to withering criti- pygmies,” Rep. Tom Lantos, prisonment of Wang and rassment.
Yahoo allowed Harry Wu, cism that culminated in Ya- a California Democrat, told Shi. “We are committed Wu, who spent 19 years in
a now-deceased dissi- hoo co-founder Jerry Yang Yang. to making sure our actions Chinese labor camps, died
dent from China, to spend being grilled during a Con- Two days later, Yahoo an- match our values around last year.q

Google refutes charges, says

there is no gender pay gap

BARBARA ORTUTAY yond gender pay equity, it had already produced
AP Technology Writer the company recently ex- hundreds of thousands of
NEW YORK (AP) — Google panded the analysis to documents in response to
said it’s “taken aback “ cover race in the U.S. as 18 separate requests, and
by the government’s well. the government is seeking
claim that it doesn’t com- The U.S. Department of La- thousands more, including
pensate women fairly. bor had accused Google contact details of employ-
The company said it con- of shortchanging women ees.
ducts “rigorous analyses” doing similar work to men, The department had no This Oct. 20, 2015, file photo, shows a sign outside Google head-
that its pay practices are saying it found “systemic comment, saying the case quarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google says it is “taken aback”
gender-blind and found compensation disparities” is ongoing. by the Labor Department’s claim that it does not compensate
“no gender pay gap” in across the company’s The difference between women fairly.
52 major job categories it workforce. Google’s and the Labor Associated Press
analyzed last year. Google Google responded in a Department’s claims might recent post for Forbes. of ‘similar job’ to find that
added that analysts who blog post Tuesday that come down to how each “Google is using a strict there is one,” he wrote.
calculate suggested pay the department’s assertion side defines pay discrimi- definition of ‘same job’ to “Who you think is right here
don’t have access to em- “came without any sup- nation, Tim Worstall, a fel- find no gender pay gap. is entirely up to you but
ployees’ gender data. porting data or methodol- low at the Adam Smith In- The Department of Labor that’s where the disagree-
Google also said that be- ogy.” The company said stitute in London, wrote in a is using a looser definition ment is.”q