This news is welcome in a nation such as China where web repression is deep:
A Chinese academic has successfully sued an internet company for closing his website after he posted articles on subjects including corruption and environmental issues.
Hu Xingdou, professor of economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said he hoped his case would encourage other users to protect their rights and net censors to make decisions more responsibly.
“I was surprised when I won. In the past, there have been people suing like me, but either the court did not take the case or they failed. This is the first successful case in China of a netizen or internet user suing their internet service provider,” Hu told the Guardian.
I discuss in my book The Blogging Revolution about growing attempts by Chinese citizens to hold web companies to account, but I look forward to the day when Western firms like Google and Yahoo are fully investigated over their complicity.
Not unlike Shell is currently experiencing in a New York courtroom.