EFF criticizes CISCO
By Ria Sharma

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is America’s most respected independent digital rights body.  The EFF has some of the best lawyers in USA who volunteer their time to protect the digital rights of citizens.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation has even corrected Wikipedia when it made the mistake of monopolizing some data.  Like Greenpeace, it has a moral authority widely respected by the public Quite often; just a public statement by EFF is enough for the largest companies to reconsider their position on the relevant issue.  In the case of Wikipedia, it implemented all the suggestions made by EFF.

Now, EFF has directed their moral authority at Cisco and asked them to stop helping China abuse human rights.  EFF has blogged

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Reports indicate that networking giant Cisco Systems, Inc., an American company based in Silicon Valley, has been knowingly selling Internet surveillance and censorship tools to the Chinese government for years. The Chinese government's "Great Firewall" prevents Internet users in China from accessing much of the Internet, including online references to Tiananmen Square and the Jasmine Revolution, as well as social media sites like Facebook. In addition to blocking access to information, these tools have enabled the Chinese government to spy on its citizens and may include special customization to target individuals working to protect human rights and build democracy in China.

Du Daobin, a dissident writer in China, was reportedly detained and interrogated by the Chinese government specifically about a lawsuit he and other Chinese dissidents brought against Cisco. In June 2011, the activists sued Cisco and a number of Cisco executives in the United States District Court in Maryland for their "knowing and willful aiding and abetting of the Chinese government's harassment, arrest, and torture of Chinese political activists."
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Not only does EFF hope to see Cisco Systems held accountable for their actions, they also want the networking giant to do all it can to prevent such human rights abuses through its hardware and software sales to some clients.