Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) today introduced the Global Online Freedom Act, a bipartisan bill that will prevent U.S. information technology (IT) companies from working hand in glove with repressive foreign governments that seek to conduct Internet surveillance on its own citizens in order to find, capture, convict and often torture them for engaging in democracy promotion and human rights advocacy on the Internet.

    “The reality is that dictatorships need two pillars to survive—propaganda and secret police,” said Smith, a longtime human rights advocate in Congress. “The Internet—when misused by authorities—gives them both in spades.

    An ABC News article (click here to read) highlights the problem Smith's bill seeks to address.
 

    “There is little doubt that information technology can and should be used to open up commercial opportunities and provide people with access to vast amounts of honest information.  It should be liberating, not oppressing for the people of the world,” he added.  “It is unconscionable that American businesses, founded in the world’s leading democracy, would even consider enabling repressive governments that seek to stifle basic freedoms. U.S. businesses should have no role in aiding and abetting oppression around the world.” 

    GOFA passed several House committees in the last Congress but the House Democratic leadership refused to bring it up for a floor vote before the end of the session. The new GOFA, H.R. 2271, requires U.S. IT companies doing business in repressive countries to keep records on and notify the U.S. Attorney General of demands for personal information about Internet users. It is aimed at ending the collaboration between U.S. companies and brutally repressive regimes when there is concern that the U.S. products will be used to put innocent, prodemocracy advocates in jail.  The legislation also gives the Attorney General the authority to order the IT companies not to comply if there is a reasonable likelihood that the demand is not made for legitimate law enforcement purposes, such as tracking down political or religious dissidents.

    “My bill passed the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee in 2008, but was never brought to the House floor,” Smith said. “This time, I sincerely hope House leadership brings the bill to the floor for a vote. Internet freedom all around the world is at stake. U.S. IT companies should be in the business of offering open means of communication, not new technologies to track down innocent citizens using the Internet to speak out the truth about their government.”

    Brad Sherman (Calif.-27), Frank Wolf (VA-10), Dan Burton (Ind.-05), Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.-46) and Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.-11), are original cosponsors of Smith’s bill.

    Smith noted that American companies not only provide personally identifying information on human rights activists to secret police, but also censor what is made available on the Internet especially when it pertains to human rights and democracy activities.  Thus, Smith’s new GOFA bill also requires U.S. IT companies to disclose the data they block when complying with the policies of repressive countries, as well as how they filter search engine results. It also prevents U.S. IT companies from blocking U.S.-government web sites. GOFA establishes an Office of Global Internet Freedom within the State Department to promote freedom of expression on the Internet and requires it to submit an annual report and designate governments that substantially restrict Internet freedom

    Modeled after the landmark Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), GOFA asserts a government responsibility to protect free speech and restore public confidence in U.S. business—responsibilities Congress can never delegate to the private sector. In 2006 a Congressional hearing chaired by Congressman Smith revealed the extent to which leading U.S. IT companies directly and knowingly enable some of the world’s most repressive states to censor the Internet and round up dissidents, now known as “cyber-dissidents”. That same year GOFA legislation was introduced, and, in response, a small group of IT companies formed the Global Network Initiative (GNI), attempting to forestall legislation by creating their own standards on how IT companies should respond to repressive governments.

    “Though GNI was a step in the right direction, it has not changed the bottom line,” Smith said. “GNI does not prevent U.S. IT companies from blocking web sites, controlling search engine results, or answering secret police subpoenas for information identifying dissidents so they can be tracked down and even imprisoned.”

    The new GOFA also has strengthened executive-branch waiver provisions, granting flexibility to the proposed law.

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