( CNN ) -- Yahoo misled Congress regarding information the Internet company gave to Chinese authorities about the journalist Shi Tao , Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos said Tuesday . Yahoo officials have been asked to testify before a House committee in November about a Chinese journalist 's case . Lantos , a California representative and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee , asked Yahoo Inc. officials to testify about the company 's role in a case that sent Chinese newspaper writer and editor Shi to prison on a 10-year sentence . Lantos asked Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Michael Callahan to appear November 6 . `` Our committee has established that Yahoo provided false information to Congress in early 2006 , '' Lantos said in a written statement . `` We want to clarify how that happened , and to hold the company to account for its actions both before and after its testimony proved untrue . And we want to examine what steps the company has taken since then to protect the privacy rights of its users in China . '' The newspaper reporter had posted information under a pseudonym on an overseas Web site called Democracy Forum about a government crackdown on media and democracy activists , Lantos said . Shi was later arrested in his home in Beijing after Yahoo gave Chinese authorities information about his e-mail account , his computer address , his log-on history and the contents of several weeks of his e-mail , Lantos said . Lantos said a Yahoo official testified last year that the company knew nothing `` about the nature of the investigation '' of Shi , a pro-democracy activist now serving time on what Lantos called `` trumped-up charges . '' `` We have now learned there is much more to the story than Yahoo let on , and a Chinese government document that Yahoo had in their possession at the time of the hearing left little doubt of the government 's intentions , '' said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey . `` U.S. companies must hold the line and not work hand in glove with the secret police . '' In a written statement , Yahoo spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Yahoo representatives have been truthful with Congress . He called the House committee 's accusation `` grossly unfair '' and said it `` mischaracterizes the nature and intent of our past testimony . '' During a February 2006 subcommittee hearing on limits to freedom on the Internet in China , Lantos and Smith questioned Callahan about Shi . Callahan testified to the subcommittee that Yahoo handed over the information to Chinese authorities at a time when it knew nothing about the investigation , Lantos said . But the San Francisco , California-based human-rights group The Dui Hua Foundation released documents in July indicating police in China had written to Yahoo saying they were seeking evidence about Shi for illegally `` providing state secrets to foreign entities , '' a charge frequently levied against political dissidents in China . `` This new documentation suggests that Yahoo 's Beijing office was at least aware of the general nature of the crime being investigated in the Shi Tao case , '' said Joshua Rosenzweig , manager of research and publications for The Dui Hua Foundation . Even if Yahoo was unaware of the specific circumstances of the Chinese government 's inquiry , `` One does not have to be an expert in Chinese law to know that 'state secrets ' charges have often been used to punish political dissent in China , '' said Rosenzweig . Shi has appealed his 10-year sentence for divulging state secrets , saying he did not know the information he shared was classified . He accused the police of using improper procedures in the investigation and arrest . In addition , he has filed suit in U.S. federal court against Yahoo and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary . Yahoo 's spokeswoman said the company is working with other companies and the human rights community `` to develop a global code of conduct for operating in countries around the world , including China . '' E-mail to a friend .
Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos : `` More to the story than Congress let on '' Yahoo officials testified to Congress in last year about Democratic journalist . Tom Lantos posted info on a democracy Web site and was later arrested . Before Shi Tao arrest , Yahoo gave Chinese government his e-mail information .