The US is about to join the fight against censorship of the World Wide Web by introducing legislation that would ban US companies such as Yahoo from revealing individuals' personal details to repressive governments.
The news that members of the US Congress are to introduce the measures comes as a campaign for freedom of speech on the Internet, run by Amnesty International, prepares to launch this week in the US. More than 24,000 people have already signed the Irrepressible.info online petition.
Representative Chris Smith has drafted the Global Online Freedom Act in a bid to stop major Internet companies cooperating with regimes which restrict free expression and use personal information to track down and punish democracy activists.
"China has forced US companies operating in China, specifically Yahoo, to hand over personally identifiable user information used to convict and imprison democratic activists on trumped-up charges," said Smith, a Republican.
Smith believes that the Internet has become "a cyber sledgehammer of repression for the government of China" and that the abuse is repeated around the world.
"Unfortunately, authoritarian regimes including Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, North Korea, Tunisia and Vietnam as well as China all block, restrict and monitor the free flow of information on the Internet," Smith said.
"Web sites that provide uncensored news and information, such as the Web sites of the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, are routinely blocked in such countries," he said.
If passed by Congress and the Senate, the bill would prohibit US companies from revealing the identity of a user to officials of an Internet-restricting country except for legitimate law enforcement.
Smith has cited the example of information from Yahoo being used to convict Shi Tao (師濤), a Chinese journalist sentenced to 10 years hard labor for sending an e-mail about the anniversary of the democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
The bill would also make it illegal for US businesses to host an e-mail server or search engine within an Internet-restricting country, censor US government Web sites or alter products to yield different results when terms such as "human rights" are searched.
It cleared its first major hurdle in Congress when it was passed unanimously by a cross-party foreign policy panel that oversees human rights.
During a hearing earlier this year, executives from Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo were told by Republican Representative Tom Lantos: "Your abhorrent activities in China are a disgrace. I cannot understand how your corporate executives sleep at night."
There are fears that the Silicon Valley giants will lobby against the bill. But Mila Rosenthal, director of the business and human rights programme at Amnesty International USA, said: "We think the companies should be welcoming this. They say `There's nothing we can do -- if we're in China, we have to do what the Chinese government tells us to do.' This act would give them the legal strength to say, `We can't hand over information which will see someone thrown in jail for 10 years because it's out of our hands.'"
Rosenthal is expecting a huge response to the launch of Irrepressible.info in the US, where thousands of bloggers have expressed their anger at attempts to curb the free Web.
"This feels like a time to draw a line in the sand and say these are absolute values and international human rights that are worth standing up for," she said.
Meanwhile, China intends to launch a fresh crackdown on Internet blogs and search engines. according to Cai Wu (
"As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blog and search engine, we will take effective measures to put the BBS [bulletin board system], blog and search engine under control," Cai said recently.
Earlier this month the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning government-imposed restrictions on Internet content which conflict with freedom of expression.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS