>From the Free Speech Coalition: GLOBAL ONLINE FREEDOM ACT PASSES COMMITTEE WASHINGTON, DC -- The Global Online Freedom Act of 2006, bill ( H.R.4780) which was introduced by Representative Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) and which has been passed by the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations (which is chaired by Smith) attempts to deal with the problem of political censorship of the Internet in repressive countries by prohibiting U.S. businesses from cooperating with it. The bill proposes a process whereby the president would designate certain foreign countries as "Internet-restricting" regions that are "directly or indirectly responsible for a systematic pattern of substantial restrictions on Internet freedom during the preceding one-year period."
The bill then goes on to provide restrictions on United States businesses with respect to countries so designated. For example, under certain circumstances, U.S. businesses that host Internet search engines or maintain Internet content hosting services could not locate computer hardware in Internet-restricting countries. As another example, U.S. businesses that provide Internet search engines could not alter the operation of search engines with respect to protected filter terms at the request of Internet-restricting country. Nor could they provide these in a manner that could produce different search engine results for Web users accessing the search engine from within the Internet-restricting country, as compared with users elsewhere. The bill is obviously directed at the issue of complicity with Chinese government Internet censorship by American search engine companies, including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco Systems. The issue was the subject of a high profile hearing by Smith's subcommittee in February. (See X-Press report, "Chinese Censorship Issue Spotlighted," 2/17/06) Some observers have doubts about the wisdom of the proposed law, including the powers-that-be at Google, Inc., which, after much soul-searching, and after holding out longer than the other search companies, finally agreed to abide by the rules China imposes and limit availability of content. (See X-Press report, "Shame on U.S. Search Engine Companies," 2/3/06). As outlined by Eric J. Sinrod in an opinion piece for CNET News, the problem is that the presence of the U.S. companies in China is a positive development, even if not perfect. If, under threat of punishment, U.S. companies retreat from China or other repressive regimes, the "Netizens" in those countries will have less, not more, freedom. Information and opinion from Eric J. Sinrod, CNET News, 6/5/06 _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
