[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 48 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 H. R. 48

   To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and 
                              censorship.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 7, 2003

  Mr. Cox (for himself, Mr. Lantos, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. 
 Pomeroy, Mr. Weller, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, and Mr. Schiff) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on International 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and 
                              censorship.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

     This Act may be cited as the ``Global Internet Freedom Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

     The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of 
        association are fundamental characteristics of a free society. 
        The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States 
        guarantees that ``Congress shall make no law . . . abridging 
        the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the 
        people peaceably to assemble.'' These constitutional provisions 
        guarantee the rights of Americans to communicate and associate 
        with one another without restriction, including unfettered 
        communication and association via the Internet. Article 19 of 
        the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
        explicitly guarantees the freedom to ``receive and impart 
        information and ideas through any media and regardless of 
        frontiers''.
            (2) All people have the right to communicate freely with 
        others, and to have unrestricted access to news and 
        information, on the Internet.
            (3) With nearly 10 percent of the world's population now 
        online, and more gaining access each day, the Internet stands 
        to become the most powerful engine for democratization and the 
        free exchange of ideas ever invented.
            (4) Unrestricted access to news and information on the 
        Internet is a check on repressive rule by authoritarian regimes 
        around the world.
            (5) The governments of Burma, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, the 
        People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam, 
        among others, are taking active measures to keep their citizens 
        from freely accessing the Internet and obtaining international 
        political, religious, and economic news and information.
            (6) Intergovernmental, nongovernmental, and media 
        organizations have reported the widespread and increasing 
        pattern by authoritarian governments to block, jam, and monitor 
        Internet access and content, using technologies such as 
        firewalls, filters, and ``black boxes''. Such jamming and 
        monitoring of individual activity on the Internet includes 
        surveillance of e-mail messages, message boards, and the use of 
        particular words; ``stealth blocking'' individuals from 
        visiting websites; the development of ``black lists'' of users 
        that seek to visit these websites; and the denial of access to 
        the Internet.
            (7) The Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, as well as 
        hundreds of news sources with an internet presence, are 
        routinely being jammed by repressive governments.
            (8) Since the 1940s, the United States has deployed anti-
        jamming technologies to make Voice of America and other United 
        States Government sponsored broadcasting available to people in 
        nations with governments that seek to block news and 
        information.
            (9) The United States Government has thus far commenced 
        only modest steps to fund and deploy technologies to defeat 
        Internet censorship. To date, the Voice of America and Radio 
        Free Asia have committed a total of $1,000,000 for technology 
        to counter Internet jamming by the People's Republic of China. 
        This technology, which has been successful in attracting 
        100,000 electronic hits per day from the People's Republic of 
        China, has been relied upon by Voice of America and Radio Free 
        Asia to ensure access to their programming by citizens of the 
        People's Republic of China, but United States Government 
        financial support for the technology has lapsed. In most other 
        countries there is no meaningful United States support for 
        Internet freedom.
            (10) The success of United States policy in support of 
        freedom of speech, press, and association requires new 
        initiatives to defeat totalitarian and authoritarian controls 
        on news and information over the Internet.

SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

     The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to adopt an effective and robust global Internet 
        freedom policy;
            (2) to establish an office within the International 
        Broadcasting Bureau with the sole mission of countering 
        Internet jamming and blocking by repressive regimes;
            (3) to expedite the development and deployment of 
        technology to protect Internet freedom around the world;
            (4) to authorize the commitment of a substantial portion of 
        United States international broadcasting resources to the 
        continued development and implementation of technologies to 
        counter the jamming of the Internet;
            (5) to utilize the expertise of the private sector in the 
        development and implementation of such technologies, so that 
        the many current technologies used commercially for securing 
        business transactions and providing virtual meeting space can 
        be used to promote democracy and freedom; and
            (6) to bring to bear the pressure of the free world on 
        repressive governments guilty of Internet censorship and the 
        intimidation and persecution of their citizens who use the 
        Internet.

SEC. 4. DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF TECHNOLOGIES TO DEFEAT INTERNET 
              JAMMING AND CENSORSHIP.

    (a) Establishment of Office of Global Internet Freedom.--There is 
established in the International Broadcasting Bureau the Office of 
Global Internet Freedom (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the 
``Office''). The Office shall be headed by a Director who shall develop 
and implement a comprehensive global strategy to combat state-sponsored 
and state-directed Internet jamming, and persecution of those who use 
the Internet.
    (b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Office $50,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 
2003 and 2004.
    (c) Cooperation of Other Federal Departments and Agencies.--Each 
department and agency of the United States Government shall cooperate 
fully with, and assist in the implementation of, the strategy developed 
by the Office and shall make such resources and information available 
to the Office as is necessary to the achievement of the purposes of 
this Act.
    (d) Report to Congress.--On March 1 following the date of the 
enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, the Director of the 
Office shall submit to the Congress a report on the status of state 
interference with Internet use and of efforts by the United States to 
counter such interference. Each report shall list the countries that 
pursue policies of Internet censorship, blocking, and other abuses; 
provide information concerning the government agencies or quasi-
governmental organizations that implement Internet censorship; and 
describe with the greatest particularity practicable the technological 
means by which such blocking and other abuses are accomplished. In the 
discretion of the Director, such report may be submitted in both a 
classified and nonclassified version.
    (e) Limitation on Authority.--Nothing in this Act shall be 
interpreted to authorize any action by the United States to interfere 
with foreign national censorship in furtherance of legitimate law 
enforcement aims that is consistent with the Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights.

SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

     It is the sense of the Congress that the United States should--
            (1) publicly, prominently, and consistently denounce 
        governments that restrict, censor, ban, and block access to 
        information on the Internet;
            (2) direct the United States Representative to the United 
        Nations to submit a resolution at the next annual meeting of 
        the United Nations Human Rights Commission condemning all 
        governments that practice Internet censorship and deny freedom 
        to access and share information; and
            (3) deploy, at the earliest practicable date, technologies 
        aimed at defeating state-directed Internet censorship and the 
        persecution of those who use the Internet.
                                 <all>