Rebecca MacKinnon has published a thoughtful essay on Asia’s fight against Internet censorship in this month’s Far Eastern Economic Review.

Yahoo’s transition from assisting China imprison four dissidents in 2003 and 2004 to establishing human rights funds is a key example of what could turn into a positive trend.

That said, Rebecca concludes with this call to arms:

The rest of us should not simply sit around and wait for our Internet and email service providers, Web-hosting services, and mobile-phone carriers to do the right thing on their own.

Technology users around the world have an interest in joining together to insist that the products and services with which we increasingly entrust our careers, our beliefs and the most intimate parts of our lives, will not sell us out because they feel they have “no choice” since all their competitors are selling out their users too.