At a press conference flanked by three other Members of Congress, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and former Chinese political prisoners, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) today praised Google for taking bold measures to end its dealings with the Chinese government that enable it to spy on the Chinese people, and called on House leaders to finally vote on the Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA), a bipartisan bill that passed multiple House Committees in the previous Congress but was not brought up for a floor vote. Google has endorsed the Smith’s GOFA bill, HR 2271.

            “Google sent a thrill of encouragement through the hearts of millions of Chinese human rights activists and political and religious dissidents—including, no doubt, many sitting in jail right now for the ‘crime’ of peacefully expressing their religious beliefs or political opinions on the Internet,” said Smith, a human rights advocate in Congress for three decade. “Google deserves to be praised for this decision. It is a blow against the cynical silence of so many, including the Obama administration, about the Chinese government’s human rights abuses—a blast of honesty and courage from which we can all draw inspiration.” (Click here for full statement) 

            Smith was joined by Congressmen Frank Wolf, Thaddeus McCotter and Bob Inglis, and officials from Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, and former Chinese political prisoners Harry Wu and Wei Jingsheng. They called on House leaders to finally vote on GOFA. Smith met with Google officials in his office Wednesday to discuss the bill.

            “Google has taken a principled stand, reminiscent of the companies that pulled out of apartheid South Africa and fascist Germany,” Wolfe said. “The Chinese government now faces the prospect of either loosening their restrictions on the Internet or angering millions of their own people who use the Google search engine. This courageous step by one American company has far-reaching implications. They found that the Gmail accounts of literally dozens of brave human rights advocates seem to have been routinely accessed. This is unconscionable, but unsurprising given China’s long history of cracking down on free speech, human rights and religious freedom. China is increasingly bold in their human rights abuses.”

            In a letter Wednesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman, Smith called for action on his legislation to prevent U.S. information technology (IT) companies from working with repressive foreign governments that seek to conduct Internet surveillance on their own citizens in order to find, capture, convict and often torture them for engaging in democracy promotion and human rights advocacy on the Internet. Smith held the first congressional hearing on the issue in February 2006, at which Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco testified. (Transcript of hearings.)

            According to Reporters Without Borders (RWB), which has endorsed Smith’s bill, about 70 cyber-activists are jailed around the world because of their internet use. The Chinese government is the top offender with nearly 50 imprisoned activists, followed by Vietnam and Iran. Clothilde Le Coz, RWB's Washington director, noted Google's corporate motto of "Do No Evil" in supporting Smith’s legislation.

            "Don't let U.S. Internet firms become evil by not giving them the means to challenge the Chinese restrictions," she said.

            Smith said his legislation will provide the appropriate guidelines for U.S. businesses so as to steer clear from collaboration with the surveillance efforts of oppressive regimes.

            Smith’s GOFA bill was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Judiciary Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee in 2008, but was never brought to the House floor. Smith re-introduced the bill in 2009. The bill is supported by numerous human rights groups and non-government organizations.

            The provisions of the Smith GOFA bill include:

• disclosure of the data U.S. IT companies doing business in repressive countries block when complying with the policies of those countries, as well as how they filter search engine results;
• protections for personal identifying information, such as email accounts;
• recordkeeping by U.S. IT companies on demands for personal information about Internet users by their government, and notification of same to the U.S. Attorney General;
• prevention of U.S. IT companies from blocking U.S.-government web sites;
• establishment of an Office of Global Internet Freedom within the State Department to promote freedom of expression on the Internet;
• requirement to submit an annual report and designate governments that substantially restrict Internet freedom; and,
• executive-branch waiver provisions, granting flexibility to the proposed law.

            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.

            Smith’s 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. Sponsors include Reps. David Wu (OR-01), Wolf (VA-10), Brad Sherman (CA-27), Dana Rohrabacher (CA.-46), Dan Burton (IN-05), and McCotter (MI-11).