House Passes Global Internet Freedom
The House today approved the Global Internet Freedom Act, authored by House Policy Chairman Christopher Cox to implement a House Policy Statement entitled "Tear Down this Firewall."
"From the printing press, to radio and television broadcasting, to the Internet, freedom of expression has grown with the expansion of technology," Chairman Cox said. "But every advance in our freedoms has been challenged by dictators. Today, many governments are attempting to restrict individual freedom by blocking the most powerful tool ever created for the free exchange of ideas throughout the world. The Global Internet Freedom Act will give millions of people around the globe the power to outwit repressive regimes that would silence them-and to protect themselves from reprisals in the process."
"The precious freedoms of speech and press in the American Constitution, however, are not special privileges to which only Americans are entitled," Chairman Cox added. "Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly guarantees the freedom to receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of the frontiers. Unfortunately, the governments of nations such as Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Vietnam, China, and many others are taking steps to deny their people these freedoms."
"These regimes have been aggressively blocking access to the Internet with technologies such as firewalls, filters, and black boxes," Chairman Cox explained. "In addition, these oppressive regimes habitually monitor activity on the Internet, including e-mail and message boards. In this way, technology has become a new tool of the police state. Such governments develop lists of users who visit particular web sites, and when they believe that a web user or publisher is a threat to their power, they act on this information."
Under the Cox legislation, which was included in full as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act:
# The United States will develop and implement a comprehensive global strategy to combat state-sponsored and state-directed Internet jamming.
# The Office of Global Internet Freedom, established within the International Broadcasting Bureau, will tap both private sector and government resources to help Internet users to avoid government censors and state persecution.
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