Cisco Systems—Cisco provided networking technology used in China's Golden Shield Project surveillance infrastructure
Cisco sold networking equipment used in China's Golden Shield Project (Great Firewall) beginning in the early 2000s. Plaintiffs allege Cisco custom-built surveillance tools that enabled Chinese security services to identify, track, and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. A 2006 Congressional hearing examined Cisco's role alongside Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Cisco maintained it sold standard networking equipment and did not customize products to facilitate censorship or repression.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authoritarian Compliance | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Surveillance Technology | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -1.324 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.66)
Evidence (2 signals)
Ninth Circuit ruled Cisco can face liability for aiding human rights abuses via Golden Shield surveillance
In July 2023, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found plaintiffs had plausibly alleged that Cisco provided essential technical assistance to China's crackdown on Falun Gong with awareness that torture, arbitrary detention, and extrajudicial killing were substantially likely to occur.
MIT Technology Review reported new evidence of Cisco enabling surveillance and control of Chinese citizens
MIT Technology Review published evidence in 2011 showing Cisco's involvement in designing and implementing surveillance infrastructure for the Chinese government's Golden Shield Project, including detailed internal marketing materials showing awareness of the system's purpose.