[Infowarrior] - House panel OKs global rules for U.S. Net firms

Thu Jun 22 20:50:02 EDT 2006

House panel OKs global rules for U.S. Net firms

By Anne Broache
http://news.com.com/House+panel+OKs+global+rules+for+U.S.+Net+firms/2100-102
8_3-6087112.html

Story last modified Thu Jun 22 17:19:15 PDT 2006

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A congressional bill that would impose strict new obligations on American
tech companies doing business with "Internet-restricting countries" like
China cleared its first hurdle to becoming law on Thursday.

The Global Online Freedom Act, introduced in February by Rep. Christopher
Smith, passed by a unanimous voice vote in the U.S. House of Representatives
subcommittee that focuses on Africa, global human rights and international
operations.

"The growth of the Internet and other information technologies can be a
force for democratic change if the information is not subject to political
censorship," Smith, a New Jersey Republican, said in a statement Thursday.

Smith proposed the bill just days after a daylong congressional hearing at
which politicians lashed out at representatives from Microsoft, Google,
Yahoo and Cisco Systems for compliance with China's state-sponsored
censorship regime.

The concerns among politicians flared up after reports that, under pressure
from the Chinese government, Microsoft had deleted a journalist's blog,
Yahoo had turned over information leading to the conviction of at least one
Chinese journalist, and Google was offering a restricted search service
there. Politicians also accused Cisco's hardware of aiding in filtering out
content, although company representatives explained that the same features
are available on all such devices they sell worldwide.

Some of those companies have said they have no choice but to comply with the
laws in all of the countries where they do business.

Strict new rules
The approved bill attempts to target those practices directly. Under its
list of "minimum corporate standards," American businesses would be barred
from keeping any electronic communication, such as e-mail, that contains
personally identifiable information on servers or other storage facilities
in "Internet-restricting countries." The rules would also prohibit them from
turning over personal information about their subscribers to governments in
those locales except for "legitimate law enforcement purposes."

All search engine providers would be required to give the U.S. State
Department's Office of Global Internet Freedom a detailed breakdown of how
their search results have been restricted or censored in such countries. All
Web content hosts would have to supply a list of URLs that have been removed
or blocked there.

Internet service providers could also face fines of up to $2 million per
offense and imprisonment for blocking access to any U.S.
government-sponsored Web site or content, such as Voice of America, in the
blacklisted countries.

Although China has taken center stage, the bill says the rules would also
apply to dealings with Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, North Korea,
Tunisia and Vietnam--along with any other country on which the U.S.
government decides to bestow an "Internet-restricting" designation.

Microsoft's managing director of federal government affairs, Jack Krumholz,
called the Global Online Freedom Act's approach "unproductive." He said in a
statement Thursday that the bill "could provoke greater restrictions, or
even the withdrawal of Internet services in China, which would leave the
Chinese people with even less ability to access information and communicate
with others."

Yahoo declined to reveal whether it supported the bill. Spokeswoman Mary
Osako said in a statement, "We look forward to continuing to work with the
U.S. Department of State's Office of Global Internet Freedom, Congress and
our industry peers to develop reasonable measures and policies that will
promote Internet freedom around the world."

Google spokesman John Murchinson said the search giant hadn't yet reviewed
the approved bill but believes "that our approach in China advances our
mission of making all the world's information universally accessible and
useful." Cisco representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The human rights group Reporters Without Borders, which has been pressuring
Yahoo on its alleged Chinese cooperation, applauded the bill's approval,
though spokeswoman Lucie Morillon said it could have gone even further.

The original version of Smith's bill, for instance, would have barred search
engine companies from agreeing to remove "protected filter terms" from
search results in order to serve the interests of restrictive governments.
That content, to be determined by the Office of Global Internet Freedom,
would have included "key words, terms and phrases relating to human rights,
democracy, religious free exercise and peaceful political dissent."

Despite that apparent compromise, Morillon said, "we believe it's going to
help make the Internet freer and help protect the privacy of users in
repressive countries," she said.