Reaction to pressure: Yahoo withdraws from China

The Internet company Yahoo became the second US company to stop working in China within a month. He is reacting to the increasing pressure from the government in Beijing.

The US company Yahoo announced that work in China was stopped on November 1st. The business environment and the legal framework have deteriorated significantly, said the Californian company. Yahoo is still committed to the rights of its users and a free and open Internet, the company said. Only a few weeks ago, the career network LinkedIn, which belongs to the Microsoft group, announced its withdrawal from China.

Symbolic act

Yahoo’s resignation from the totalitarian country is more of a symbolic act. As early as 2013, the company had begun to switch off its most important services such as e-mail and news in China in order to bow to the censorship conditions.

Western tech companies are increasingly being driven out of the country. In the past few months, the government in Beijing has increased the pressure again. The Chinese authorities are also taking action against content in video games that they consider politically harmful.