[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4741 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4741

     To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 14, 2006

Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (for herself, Mr. Lantos, Mr. Saxton, Mr. Weller, Mr. 
 Schiff, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. Issa, Mr. 
  McCotter, Mrs. Musgrave, and Mr. Simmons) introduced the following 
  bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming.

    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.

    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 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 Universal 
        Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations explicitly 
        guarantees the freedom to ``receive and impart information and 
        ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers''.
            (2) All peoples have the right to communicate freely with 
        others, and to have unrestricted access to news and 
        information, including on the Internet.
            (3) With nearly 14 percent of the population of the world 
        now online, and an increasing number of people gaining access 
        to the Internet 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 authoritarian rule by repressive foreign 
        governments in countries around the world.
            (5) The governments of Burma, Cuba, Iran, Laos, the 
        Maldives, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, Saudi 
        Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam, among others, are taking active 
        measures to prevent their citizens from freely accessing the 
        Internet and from obtaining international political, religious, 
        and economic news and information.
            (6) Intergovernmental, nongovernmental, and media 
        organizations have reported the widespread and increasing 
        pattern by repressive foreign governments of Internet jamming, 
        including jamming, censoring, blocking, monitoring, and 
        restricting Internet access and content by using technologies 
        such as firewalls, filters, and ``black boxes''. Such 
        interference with individual activity on the Internet includes 
        surveillance of e-mail messages, message boards, and the use of 
        particular words, ``stealth blocking'' individuals from 
        visiting particular websites, the development of ``black 
        lists'' of users who seek to visit these websites, and the 
        complete denial of access to the Internet.
            (7) The websites 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-sponsored radio broadcasting available to peoples in 
        countries with governments that seek to block news and 
        information.
            (9) The United States has thus far commenced only modest 
        steps to fund and deploy technologies to defeat Internet 
        jamming. To date, for example, the Voice of America and Radio 
        Free Asia have committed a total of $3,000,000 for technology 
        to counter Internet jamming of their websites by the People's 
        Republic of China. This technology has been relied upon by 
        Voice of America and Radio Free Asia to ensure access to their 
        programming, and it has successfully permitted 100,000 
        electronic hits per day from users in China. However, United 
        States financial support for this 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 by repressive foreign governments;
            (3) to expedite the development and deployment of 
        technologies to protect Internet freedom in countries around 
        the world;
            (4) to authorize a substantial portion of United States 
        international broadcasting resources to be committed to the 
        continued development and implementation of technologies to 
        counter Internet jamming by repressive foreign governments;
            (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 spaces can 
        be used to promote democracy and freedom in countries around 
        the world; and
            (6) to bring to bear the pressure of the free world on 
        repressive foreign governments that engage in Internet jamming 
        and the intimidation and persecution by such governments 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 (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 by repressive foreign governments, and 
the intimidation and persecution by such governments of their citizens 
who use the Internet.
    (b) 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 achieve the purposes of this Act.
    (c) Report to Congress.--Not later than March 1 of the year 
following the date of the enactment of this Act and one year 
thereafter, the Director of the Office shall submit to Congress a 
report on the status of state-sponsored and state-directed Internet 
jamming by repressive foreign governments and a description of efforts 
by the United States to counter such jamming. Each report shall list 
the countries the governments of which engage in Internet jamming, 
provide information concerning the government agencies or quasi-
governmental organizations of such governments that engage in Internet 
jamming; and describe with the greatest particularity practicable the 
technological means by which such jamming is accomplished. If the 
Director determines that such is appropriate, the Director may submit 
such report together with a classified annex.
    (d) Limitation on Authority.--Nothing in this Act shall be 
interpreted to authorize any action by the United States to interfere 
with Internet jamming by a repressive foreign government if such 
jamming is in furtherance of legitimate law enforcement aims that are 
consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    (e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Office $50,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 
2007 and 2008.

SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that the United States should--
            (1) publicly, prominently, and consistently denounce 
        repressive foreign governments that engage in Internet jamming;
            (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 
        repressive foreign governments that engage in Internet jamming 
        and deny their citizens the freedom to access and share 
        information on the Internet; and
            (3) deploy, at the earliest practicable date, technologies 
        aimed at defeating state-sponsored and state-directed Internet 
        jamming by repressive foreign governments and the intimidation 
        and persecution by such governments of their citizens who use 
        the Internet.

SEC. 6. DEFINITION.

    In this Act, the term ``Internet jamming'' means jamming, 
censoring, blocking, monitoring, or restricting Internet access and 
content by using technologies such as firewalls, filters, and ``black 
boxes''.
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