[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4784 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4784

 To establish the Internet Freedom Foundation, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 9, 2010

    Mr. Wu introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on Science and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To establish the Internet Freedom Foundation, 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 ``Internet Freedom Act of 2010''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of 
        the press, and freedom of association are fundamental human 
        rights.
            (2) Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
        declares ``Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and 
        expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions 
        without interference and to seek, receive and impart 
        information and ideas through any media and regardless of 
        frontiers.''.
            (3) The Internet is a transformative force and stands to 
        become the most powerful engine for citizen empowerment, 
        transparency, and the free exchange of ideas ever invented.
            (4) Any government, or government sanctioned, supported, 
        authorized, or endorsed entity, either explicitly or 
        implicitly, that blocks, restricts, controls, or monitors any 
        person's use of the Internet effectively transforms the 
        Internet into a tool of censorship and surveillance, in 
        contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 
        the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

SEC. 3. INTERNET FREEDOM FOUNDATION.

    (a) Establishment of the Internet Freedom Foundation.--The National 
Science Foundation shall establish the Internet Freedom Foundation. The 
Internet Freedom Foundation shall--
            (1) award competitive, merit-reviewed grants, cooperative 
        agreements, or contracts to private industry, universities, and 
        other research and development organizations to develop 
        deployable technologies to defeat Internet suppression and 
        censorship; and
            (2) award incentive prizes to private industry, 
        universities, and other research and development organizations 
        that successfully develop deployable technologies to defeat 
        Internet suppression and censorship.
    (b) 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 law enforcement aims 
that are consistent with the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights.

SEC. 4. DEFINITION.

    The term ``Internet suppression'' means censoring, blocking, 
monitoring, or restricting access to the Internet, or to content made 
available via the Internet, by using technologies such as firewalls, 
filters, and ``black boxes''.

SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of the Congress that the United States should--
            (1) publicly, prominently, and consistently denounce 
        governments and private entities that restrict, censor, ban, 
        and block access to information on the Internet; and
            (2) support the deployment, at the earliest practicable 
        date, of technologies aimed at defeating state-directed and 
        state-sponsored Internet suppression and the persecution by 
        governments and private entities of those individuals who use 
        the Internet.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Internet Freedom 
Foundation such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act.
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