In May 2011, three Chinese dissidents and Human Rights Law Foundation in Washington filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court in San Jose, California, accusing Cisco Systems, Inc. of designing products to help the Chinese government persecute members of China's banned spiritual group, Falun Gong. The issue in his cases is whether U.S. comanies can be held liable if foreign governments use their product to repress the rights of their citizens. China treats political dissent as a crime and heavily filters the Internet to suppress it. Since February, the Chinese government it has stepped up its efforts to quash its detractors, detaining dozens of dissidents mostly for writing articles critical of the government.
On September 9, 2011, Human Rights Law Foundation amended its original complaint, saying it had new evidence that Cisco customized its products specifically to enable the authorities to persecute members of Falun Gong, some of whom were allegedly tortured and killed by the Chinese authorities. The lawsuit said Cisco "willingly and knowingly provided Chinese officials with technology and training to access private Internet communications, identify anonymous web log authors, prevent the broadcast and dissemination of peaceful speech, and otherwise aid and abet in the violation of...fundamental human rights." The new evidence includes a PowerPoint presentation from Cisco that describes a specific line of products "as the only product on the market capable of recognising over 90 percent of Falun Gong pictures."
This lawsuit folows a string of lawsuits against large technology companies such as Yahoo, IBM and Microsoft for aiding in human rights abuses.
Cisco denies that the company has aided the Chinese government in persecuting its citizens who advocate for human rights, commenting that this technology is sold in worldwide markets.
On September 9, 2011, Human Rights Law Foundation amended its original complaint, saying it had new evidence that Cisco customized its products specifically to enable the authorities to persecute members of Falun Gong, some of whom were allegedly tortured and killed by the Chinese authorities. The lawsuit said Cisco "willingly and knowingly provided Chinese officials with technology and training to access private Internet communications, identify anonymous web log authors, prevent the broadcast and dissemination of peaceful speech, and otherwise aid and abet in the violation of...fundamental human rights." The new evidence includes a PowerPoint presentation from Cisco that describes a specific line of products "as the only product on the market capable of recognising over 90 percent of Falun Gong pictures."
This lawsuit folows a string of lawsuits against large technology companies such as Yahoo, IBM and Microsoft for aiding in human rights abuses.
Cisco denies that the company has aided the Chinese government in persecuting its citizens who advocate for human rights, commenting that this technology is sold in worldwide markets.
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