Lawsuit Alleges Cisco Helped China Target Dissidents

The Human Rights Law Foundation, on behalf of followers of Falun Gong in the U.S. last week filed a suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, accusing Cisco of designing the "Golden Shield" firewall used to censor the Internet and track Chinese dissidents, the The New York Times reported.

The suit claims that Cisco marketing materials promoted Cisco's technology as able to help target dissidents, according to the report. Other documents allegedly show Cisco's role in helping design the Golden Shield, the Times wrote.

Falun Gong is a spiritual movement with beliefs similar to those of Buddhism. It started gathering followers in China in the early 1990s, but by 1999 it was banned by the government of China as a subversive organization.

Cisco declined to discuss the lawsuit. However, in a statement sent to CRN that was not attributed to a specific executive, Cisco wrote, " There is no basis for these allegations against Cisco, and we intend to vigorously defend against them. Cisco does not operate networks in China or elsewhere, nor does Cisco customize our products in any way that would facilitate censorship or repression. Cisco builds equipment to global standards which facilitate free exchange of information, and we sell the same equipment in China that we sell in other nations worldwide in strict compliance with US government regulations."