Yesterday, Congress scolded Yahoo, Inc. for cooperating with the communist Chinese government in providing identifying information which led to the jailing of a man who wrote pro-freedom editorials online. Today, the American People spoke up, too, and Yahoo’s stock price dropped dramatically. Yahoo’s stock closed today down 7.69% from yesterday’s already weakened price. I blogged about how Yahoo had trampled the civil rights of its Chinese users earlier this year when the jailed man’s wife filed a lawsuit against Yahoo for its transgression.

It’s good to see Capitalism take a swing at Yahoo for its disregard for civil liberty, and it’s a perfect example of how free markets can help protect our civil rights. Presumably, Yahoo, Inc. cooperates with communist governments’ demands in order to gain access to those markets and, therefore, make more money. But, it won’t be that simple in the future. Yahoo CEO, Jerry Yang, will have to consider the potential stock losses on the open market that might result from such actions. One virtue of Capitalist freedom is that each of us can affect change simply by how we choose to spend and invest our money. Today, many of Yahoo’s stockholders clearly made a wise decision.