[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1183 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1183

   To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and 
                  censorship, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              June 4, 2003

  Mr. Kyl (for himself and Mr. Wyden) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and 
                  censorship, and for other purposes.

    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 of 
2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    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 methods that include--
                    (A) firewalls, filters, and ``black boxes'';
                    (B) surveillance of e-mail messages and message 
                boards;
                    (C) the use of particular words to identify content 
                to be monitored;
                    (D) ``stealth blocking'' individuals from visiting 
                websites;
                    (E) the development of ``black lists'' of users 
                that visit certain websites; and
                    (F) the denial of access to the Internet.
            (7) The transmission of 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. As of January 2003, 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 section 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 jamming of the Internet and persecution of those who 
use the Internet.
    (b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Office $30,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 
2004 and 2005.
    (c) Cooperation of Other Federal Departments and Agencies.--The 
head of each department and agency of the United States Government 
shall cooperate fully with, and assist in the implementation of, the 
strategy developed by the Director of the Office and shall make such 
resources and information available to the Director as is necessary for 
the achievement of the purposes of this Act.
    (d) Report to Congress.--
            (1) In general.--On March 1 following the date of enactment 
        of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Director of the 
        Office shall submit to Congress a report on the status of state 
        interference with Internet use and of efforts by the United 
        States to counter such interference.
            (2) Content.--Each report required by paragraph (1) shall--
                    (A) list the countries that pursue policies of 
                Internet censorship, blocking, and other abuses;
                    (B) provide information concerning the government 
                agencies or quasi-governmental organizations that 
                implement Internet censorship; and
                    (C) describe with the greatest particularity 
                practicable the technological means by which such 
                blocking and other abuses are accomplished.
            (3) Forms of report.--In the discretion of the Director, a 
        report required by paragraph (1) may be submitted in both a 
        classified and a nonclassified form.
    (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 United Nation's Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights.

SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

     It is the sense of 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 first annual meeting of 
        the United Nations Human Rights Commission after the date of 
        enactment of this Act that condemns all governments that 
        practice Internet censorship and deny individuals the 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>