Criticisms and controversy in Cisco

Censorship in China

Cisco has been criticized for its involvement in censorship in the People's Republic of China. According to author Ethan Gutmann, Cisco and other telecommunications equipment providers supplied the Chinese government with surveillance and Internet infrastructure equipment that is used to block Internet websites and track Chinese on-line activities. Cisco says that it does not customize or develop specialized or unique filtering capabilities to enable governments to block access to information and that it sells the same equipment in China as it sells worldwide.

Wired News had uncovered a leaked, confidential Cisco powerpoint presentation that details the commercial opportunities of the Golden Shield Project of Internet control.In her article, journalist Sarah Stirland accuses Cisco of marketing its technology "specifically as a tool of repression."

Tax fraud investigation

On October 16, 2007, the Brazilian Federal Police and Brazilian Receita Federal (equivalent to the American IRS) under the "Persona Operation" uncovered an alleged tax fraud scheme employed by Cisco Systems since 2002 that exempted the company from paying over R$1.5 billion (US$824 million) in taxes.

Antitrust lawsuit

On December 1, 2008, Multiven filed an antitrust lawsuit against Cisco Systems, Inc. in an effort to open up the network maintenance services marketplace for Cisco equipment, promote competition and ensure consumer choice and value. Multiven’s complaint alleges that Cisco harmed Multiven and consumers by bundling and tying bug fixes/patches and updates for its operating system software to its maintenance services (SMARTnet) and through a series of other illegal exclusionary and anticompetitive acts designed to maintain Cisco’s alleged monopoly in the network maintenance services market for Cisco networking equipment. Cisco responded by accusing the person who filed the anti-trust suit, British born Peter Alfred-Adekeye, with hacking and pressured the US government to extradite him from Canada where he was giving evidence against Cisco in an anti-trust hearing. Canadian Judge Ronald McKinnon, who oversaw the extradition hearing, stated the real reason for the extradition proceedings was because Alfred-Adekeye "dared to take on a multinational giant." He also condemned the US prosecutor for hiding the fact that Alfred-Adekeye was in legal proceedings against Cisco Systems, for stating that Alfred-Adekeye had left the USA in a time period when he had not and a formal request for extradition was not filed against Alfred-Adekeye when he was taken into custody. Judge McKinnon described the information provided by Cisco and the US prosecutor as "full of innuendo, half-truths and falsehoods" adding "This speaks volumes for Cisco's duplicity" and accused them of "unmitigated gall" in using such a heavy-handed move as an unsupportable arrest and jailing to pressure Alfred-Adekeye to drop or settle his civil antitrust complaint.

Intimidation

Cisco has been reported as using intimidation tactics in several news reports.