Fighting back Internet Censorship : US Congress launches the Global Internet Freedom Caucus

In light of Google’s recent announcement that it is no longer willing to censor its search results in China, Congressman David Wu (D-OR) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) launched the Global Internet Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives today. International press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders welcomes this new bipartisan effort to promote global Internet freedom.“Since the beginning of the year, top US officials have publicly voiced their commitment to Internet Freedom. We now hope this Caucus will help move forwards concrete measures to protect online free speech." During a press conference held at Congress today, Chairman Wu spoke about the importance of Internet freedom as an economic and human right. “The Internet is not only a vital part of today's innovation society-where ingenuity and entrepreneurship are necessary elements of survival in our global economy-it is also the most powerful engine for the free exchange of information and ideas in human history.” “ The Global Internet Freedom Caucus will help create support in the House for meaningful Internet freedom legislation" added Rep. Smith, who introduced the Global Online Freedom Act to Congress in 2006. "it's become very clear that IT companies are not powerful enough to stand up to a repressive government. Without US government support, they are inevitably forced to be ever more complicit in the repressive governments censorahip and surveillance" The Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA) aims to“prevent United States businesses from cooperating with repressive governments in transforming the Internet into a tool of censorship and surveillance, to fulfill the responsibility of the United States Government to promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to restore public confidence in the integrity of United States businesses.” On March 8th 2010, the US treasury department also adopted amendments authorizing the exportation of certain personal Internet-based communications services – such as instant messaging, chat and email, and social networking – to Iran, Sudan and Cuba. “Helping the U.S firms to protect their services while operating in repressive countries, is one of the most important issues we face. This Caucus will help foster dialogue about Internet Freedom between human rights groups and business interests. We therefore reiterate our support to the Global Online Freedom Act and encourage the European Union to go further with theirs”, added Reporters Without Borders. During the press conference, Congressman Wu introduced the Internet Freedom Act of 2010, which would award competitive grants and incentive prizes to public and private research entities for the purpose of developing technologies to defeat Internet suppression and censorship. At the moment, 119 netizens around the world, including 72 in China, are behind bars for what they wrote on-line. On March 12th, Reporters Without Borders will release its report listing the “Internet Enemies” an celebrate the World Day against Cyber-censorship. More information about World Day Against Cyber Censorship