I 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4780 

To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States 

businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian 

foreign governments, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 16, 2006 

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. WOLF, Mr. PAYNE, 

Mr. ROHRABACHER, and Mr. RYAN of Ohio) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in 

addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be 

subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 

of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect 

United States businesses from coercion to participate 

in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Global Online Freedom Act of 2006’’. 
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1 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 

2 this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

Sec. 2. Findings. 

Sec. 3. Definitions. 

Sec. 4. Severability. 

TITLE I—PROMOTION OF GLOBAL INTERNET FREEDOM 

Sec. 101. Statement of policy. 

Sec. 102. Sense of Congress. 

Sec. 103. Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. 

Sec. 104. Office of Global Internet Freedom. 

Sec. 105. Annual designation of Internet-restricting countries; report. 

TITLE II—MINIMUM CORPORATE STANDARDS FOR ONLINE 

FREEDOM 

Sec. 201. Protection of search engines and content services. 

Sec. 202. Integrity of search engines. 

Sec. 203. Transparency regarding search engine filtering. 

Sec. 204. Protection of United States-supported online content. 

Sec. 205. Transparency regarding Internet censorship. 

Sec. 206. Integrity of user identifying information. 

Sec. 207. Penalties. 

TITLE III—EXPORT CONTROLS FOR INTERNET-RESTRICTING 

COUNTRIES 

Sec. 301. Establishment of export controls. 

Sec. 302. Report. 

3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress makes the following findings: 

5 (1) Freedom of speech and freedom of the press 

6 are fundamental human rights, and free use of the 

7 Internet is protected in Article 19 of the Universal 

8 Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees 

9 freedom to ‘‘receive and impart information and 

10 ideas through any media regardless of frontiers’’. 
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1 (2) The Internet has been a success because it 

2 quickly provides information to its more than 972 

3 million users globally. 

4 (3) The growth of the Internet and other infor5 mation technologies can be a force for democratic 

6 change if the information is not subject to political 

7 censorship. 

8 (4) The Internet has played a role in bringing 

9 international attention to issues the discussion of 

10 which are forbidden by authoritarian foreign govern11 ments, such as attempts by the Government of the 

12 People’s Republic of China to suppress news of the 

13 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak 

14 in 2004. 

15 (5) The rapid provision of full and uncensored 

16 information through the Internet has become a 

17 major industry of the United States, and one of its 

18 major exports. 

19 (6) Political censorship of the Internet degrades 

20 the quality of that service and ultimately threatens 

21 the integrity and viability of the industry itself, both 

22 in the United States and abroad. 

23 (7) Authoritarian foreign governments such as 

24 the Governments of Belarus, Burma, the People’s 

25 Republic of China, Cuba, Iran, Libya, the Maldives, 
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1 Nepal, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, 

2 Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam block, re3 strict, and monitor the information their citizens try 

4 to obtain. 

5 (8) Web sites that provide uncensored news and 

6 information, such as the Web sites of the Voice of 

7 America and Radio Free Asia, are routinely blocked 

8 in such countries. 

9 (9) In June 2003, the Government of the So10 cialist Republic of Vietnam arrested, convicted of 

11 ‘‘spying’’, and sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment 

12 and 3 years’ house arrest (later reduced on appeal 

13 to 5 years’ imprisonment and 6 years’ house arrest) 

14 Dr. Pham Hong Son after he translated an Internet 

15 article titled ‘‘What is Democracy’’ from the Web 

16 site of the United States Embassy in Vietnam. 

17 (10) According to the Department of State’s 

18 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the 

19 Government of Vietnam in 2004 tightened control of 

20 the Internet, requiring Internet agents, such as 

21 cyber cafes, to register the personal information of 

22 their customers and store records of Internet sites 

23 visited by customers. The Vietnamese Government 

24 also monitored electronic mail, searched for sensitive 

25 key words, and regulated Internet content. 
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1 (11) The Government of the People’s Republic 

2 of China has employed censorship of the Internet in 

3 violation of Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution, 

4 which guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the 

5 press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, 

6 freedom of procession, and freedom of demonstra7 tion. 

8 (12) This censorship by the Chinese Govern9 ment promotes, perpetuates, and exacerbates a 

10 xenophobic—and at times particularly anti-Amer11 ican—Chinese nationalism, the long-term effect of 

12 which will be deleterious to United States efforts to 

13 prevent the relationship between the United States 

14 and China from becoming hostile. 

15 (13) Unchecked transfers of dual use tech16 nology have already increased China’s ability to suc17 cessfully invade Taiwan, and correspondingly dimin18 ished United States and Taiwanese capacity to de19 fend that democratic society, thereby greatly increas20 ing tension in East Asia. 

21 (14) Technology companies in the United 

22 States that operate in countries controlled by au23 thoritarian foreign governments have a responsibility 

24 to comply with the principles of the Universal Dec25 laration of Human Rights. 
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1 (15) Technology companies in the United 

2 States have succumbed to pressure by authoritarian 

3 foreign governments to provide such governments 

4 with information about Internet users that has led 

5 to the arrest and imprisonment of cyber dissidents, 

6 in violation of the corporate responsibility of such 

7 companies to protect and uphold human rights. 

8 (16) Technology companies in the United 

9 States have provided the technology and training to 

10 authoritarian foreign governments to assist such 

11 governments in filtering and blocking information 

12 that promotes democracy and freedom. 

13 (17) Technology companies in the United 

14 States have failed to develop standards by which 

15 they can conduct business with authoritarian foreign 

16 governments while protecting human rights to free17 dom of speech and freedom of expression. 

18 (18) The United States supports the universal 

19 right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. 

20 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

21 In this Act: 

22 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT23 TEES.—Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the 

24 term ‘‘appropriate congressional committees’’ 

25 means— 
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1 (A) the Committee on International Rela2 tions of the House of Representatives; and 

3 (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 

4 the Senate. 

5 (2) FOREIGN OFFICIAL.— 

6 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘foreign offi7 cial’’ means— 

8 (i) any officer or employee of a for9 eign government or any department, agen10 cy, state-owned enterprise, or instrumen11 tality thereof; or 

12 (ii) any person acting in an official ca13 pacity for or on behalf of any such govern14 ment or department, agency, state-owned 

15 enterprise, or instrumentality. 

16 (B) STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISE.—For 

17 purposes of subparagraph (A), the term ‘‘state18 owned enterprise’’ means a commercial entity in 

19 which a foreign government owns, directly or 

20 indirectly, more than 50 percent of the out21 standing capital stock or other beneficial inter22 est in such commercial entity. 

23 (3) INTERNET.—The term ‘‘Internet’’ means 

24 the combination of computer facilities, telecommuni25 cations facilities, electromagnetic transmission 
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1 media, and related equipment and software, com2 prising the interconnected worldwide network of 

3 computer networks that employ the Transmission 

4 Control Protocol/Internet Protocol or any successor 

5 protocol to transmit information. 

6 (4) INTERNET CONTENT HOSTING SERVICE.— 

7 The terms ‘‘Internet content hosting service’’ and 

8 ‘‘content hosting service’’ mean a service that— 

9 (A) stores, through electromagnetic or 

10 other means, electronic data, including the con11 tent of web pages, electronic mail, documents, 

12 images, audio and video files, online discussion 

13 boards, and weblogs; and 

14 (B) makes such data available via the 

15 Internet. 

16 (5) INTERNET JAMMING.—The term ‘‘Internet 

17 jamming’’ means jamming, censoring, blocking, 

18 monitoring, or restricting access to the Internet, or 

19 to content made available via the Internet, by using 

20 technologies such as firewalls, filters, and ‘‘black 

21 boxes’’. 

22 (6) INTERNET-RESTRICTING COUNTRY.—The 

23 term ‘‘Internet-restricting country’’ means a country 

24 designated by the President pursuant to section 

25 105(a) of this Act. 
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1 (7) INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE.—The term 

2 ‘‘Internet search engine’’ or ‘‘search engine’’ means 

3 a service made available via the Internet that, on the 

4 basis of query consisting of terms, concepts, ques5 tions, or other data input by a user, searches infor6 mation available on the Internet and returns to the 

7 user a means, such as a hyperlinked list of Uniform 

8 Resource Identifiers, of locating, viewing, or 

9 downloading information or data available on the 

10 Internet relating to that query. 

11 (8) LEGITIMATE FOREIGN LAW ENFORCEMENT

12 PURPOSES.— 

13 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘legitimate 

14 foreign law enforcement purposes’’ means for 

15 purposes of enforcement, investigation, or pros16 ecution by a foreign official based on a publicly 

17 promulgated law of reasonable specificity that 

18 proximately relates to the protection or pro19 motion of the health, safety, or morals of the 

20 citizens of that jurisdiction. 

21 (B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—For pur22 poses of this Act, the control, suppression, or 

23 punishment of peaceful expression of political or 

24 religious opinion, which is protected by Article 

25 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and 
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1 Political Rights, does not constitute a legitimate 

2 foreign law enforcement purpose. 

3 (9) PROTECTED FILTER TERMS.—The term 

4 ‘‘protected filter terms’’ means the words, terms, 

5 and phrases identified by the Office of Global Inter6 net Freedom pursuant to section 104(b)(4) of this 

7 Act. 

8 (10) SUBSTANTIAL RESTRICTIONS ON INTER9 NET FREEDOM.—The term ‘‘substantial restrictions 

10 on Internet freedom’’ means actions that restrict or 

11 punish the free availability of information via the 

12 Internet for reasons other than legitimate foreign 

13 law enforcement purposes, including— 

14 (A) deliberately blocking, filtering, or cen15 soring information available via the Internet 

16 based on its peaceful political or religious con17 tent; or 

18 (B) persecuting, prosecuting, or otherwise 

19 punishing an individual or group for posting or 

20 transmitting peaceful political or religious opin21 ions via the Internet, including by electronic 

22 mail. 

23 (11) UNITED STATES BUSINESS.—The term 

24 ‘‘United States business’’ means— 
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1 (A) any corporation, partnership, associa2 tion, joint-stock company, business trust, unin3 corporated organization, or sole proprietorship 

4 that— 

5 (i) has its principal place of business 

6 in the United States; or 

7 (ii) is organized under the laws of a 

8 State of the United States or a territory, 

9 possession, or commonwealth of the United 

10 States; 

11 (B) any issuer of a security registered pur12 suant to section 12 of the Securities Exchange 

13 Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78l); and 

14 (C) any foreign subsidiary of an entity de15 scribed in subparagraph (A) or (B) to the ex16 tent such entity— 

17 (i) controls the voting shares or other 

18 equities of the foreign subsidiary; or 

19 (ii) authorizes, directs, controls, or 

20 participates in acts carried out by the for21 eign subsidiary that are prohibited by this 

22 Act. 

23 (12) UNITED STATES-SUPPORTED CONTENT.— 

24 The term ‘‘United States-supported content’’ means 

25 content that is created or developed, in whole or in 
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1 part, by a United States-supported information enti2 ty. 

3 (13) UNITED STATES-SUPPORTED INFORMA4 TION ENTITY.—The term ‘‘United States-supported 

5 information entity’’ means— 

6 (A) any authority of the Government of 

7 the United States; and 

8 (B) any entity that— 

9 (i) receives grants from the Broad10 casting Board of Governors to carry out 

11 international broadcasting activities in ac12 cordance with the United States Inter13 national Broadcasting Act of 1994 (title 

14 III of Public Law 103–236; 22 U.S.C. 

15 6201 et seq.); 

16 (ii) in coordination with the Inter17 national Broadcasting Bureau, carries out 

18 all nonmilitary international broadcasting 

19 activities supported by the Government of 

20 the United States in accordance with such 

21 Act (other than the international broad22 casting activities supported by the Broad23 casting Board of Governors as specified in 

24 such Act); or 
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1 (iii) receives grants or other similar 

2 funding from the Government of the 

3 United States to carry out any information 

4 dissemination activities. 

5 (14) UNITED STATES-SUPPORTED WEBSITE.— 

6 The term ‘‘United States-supported website’’ means 

7 a location on the World Wide Web that is owned or 

8 managed by, or is registered to, a United States9 supported information entity. 

10 SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY. 

11 If any provision of this Act, or the application of such 

12 provision to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, 

13 the remainder of this Act, and the application of such pro14 vision to other persons not similarly situated or to other 

15 circumstances, shall not be affected by such invalidation. 

16 TITLE I—PROMOTION OF 

17 GLOBAL INTERNET FREEDOM 

18 SEC. 101. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

19 It shall be the policy of the United States— 

20 (1) to promote the ability of all to access and 

21 contribute information, ideas, and knowledge via the 

22 Internet and to advance the right to receive and im23 part information and ideas through any media and 

24 regardless of frontiers as a fundamental component 

25 of United States foreign policy; 
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1 (2) to use all instruments of United States in2 fluence, including diplomacy, trade policy, and ex3 port controls, to support, promote, and strengthen 

4 principles, practices, and values that promote the 

5 free flow of information; and 

6 (3) to prohibit any United States businesses 

7 from cooperating with officials of Internet-restricting 

8 countries in effecting the political censorship of on9 line content. 

10 SEC. 102. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

11 It is the sense of Congress that— 

12 (1) the President should commence negotiations 

13 in appropriate international fora, including the Or14 ganization of Economic Cooperation and Develop15 ment (OECD), the World Trade Organization 

16 (WTO), the United Nations World Summit on the 

17 Information Society (WSIS), and the Internet Gov18 ernance Forum (IGF), to obtain the agreement of 

19 other countries to enact legislation similar to this 

20 Act and to pursue the development of international 

21 agreements protecting Internet freedom; and 

22 (2) to the extent that a United States business 

23 empowers or assists an authoritarian foreign govern24 ment in its efforts to restrict online access to the 

25 Web sites of Radio Free Asia, the Voice of America, 
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1 or other United States-supported Web sites and on2 line access to United States Government reports 

3 such as the Annual Country Reports on Human 

4 Rights Practices and the International Religious 

5 Freedom Report, that business is working contrary 

6 to the foreign policy interests of the United States, 

7 and is undercutting United States taxpayer-funded 

8 efforts to promote freedom of information for all 

9 people, including those in undemocratic and repres10 sive societies. 

11 SEC. 103. ANNUAL COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS 

12 PRACTICES. 

13 (a) REPORT RELATING TO ECONOMIC ASSIST14 ANCE.—Section 116 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 

15 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n) is amended by adding at the end 

16 the following new subsection: 

17 ‘‘(g)(1) The report required by subsection (d) shall 

18 include an assessment of the freedom of electronic infor19 mation in each foreign country. Such assessment shall in20 clude the following: 

21 ‘‘(A) An assessment of the general extent to 

22 which Internet access is available to and used by 

23 citizens in that country. 

24 ‘‘(B) An assessment of the extent to which gov25 ernment authorities in that country attempt to filter, 
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1 censor, or otherwise block Internet content, as well 

2 as a description of the means by which they attempt 

3 to block such content. 

4 ‘‘(C) A description of known instances in which 

5 government authorities in that country have per6 secuted, prosecuted, or otherwise punished a person 

7 or group for the peaceful expression of political, reli8 gious, or dissenting views via the Internet, including 

9 electronic mail. 

10 ‘‘(2) In compiling data and making assessments for 

11 the purposes of paragraph (1), United States diplomatic 

12 mission personnel shall consult with human rights organi13 zations and other appropriate nongovernmental organiza14 tions.’’. 

15 (b) REPORT RELATING TO SECURITY ASSISTANCE.— 

16 Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 

17 U.S.C. 2304) is amended by adding at the end the fol18 lowing new subsection: 

19 ‘‘(i)(1) The report required by subsection (b) shall in20 clude an assessment of the freedom of electronic informa21 tion in each foreign country. Such assessment shall in22 clude the following: 

23 ‘‘(A) An assessment of the general extent to 

24 which Internet access is available to and used by 

25 citizens in that country. 
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1 ‘‘(B) An assessment of the extent to which gov2 ernment authorities in that country attempt to filter, 

3 censor, or otherwise block Internet content, as well 

4 as a description of the means by which they attempt 

5 to block such content. 

6 ‘‘(C) A description of known instances in which 

7 government authorities in that country have per8 secuted, prosecuted, or otherwise punished a person 

9 or group for the peaceful expression of political, reli10 gious, or dissenting views via the Internet, including 

11 electronic mail. 

12 ‘‘(2) In compiling data and making assessments for 

13 the purposes of paragraph (1), United States diplomatic 

14 mission personnel shall consult with human rights organi15 zations and other appropriate nongovernmental organiza16 tions.’’. 

17 SEC. 104. OFFICE OF GLOBAL INTERNET FREEDOM. 

18 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 

19 Department of State the Office of Global Internet Free20 dom (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Office’’). 

21 (b) DUTIES.—In addition to such other responsibil22 ities as the President may assign, the Office shall— 

23 (1) serve as the focal point for interagency ef24 forts to protect and promote freedom of electronic 

25 information abroad; 
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1 (2) develop and implement a global strategy to 

2 combat state-sponsored and state-directed Internet 

3 jamming by authoritarian foreign governments, and 

4 the intimidation and persecution by such govern5 ments of their citizens who use the Internet; 

6 (3) provide assistance to the President in con7 nection with the annual designation of Internet-re8 stricting countries required by section 105(a) of this 

9 Act; 

10 (4) beginning not later than 180 days after the 

11 date of the enactment of this Act— 

12 (A) identify key words, terms, and phrases 

13 relating to human rights, democracy, religious 

14 free exercise, and peaceful political dissent, both 

15 in general and as specifically related to the par16 ticular context and circumstances of each Inter17 net-restricting country, for purposes of compli18 ance by United States businesses with the re19 quirements of section 202 of this Act; and 

20 (B) maintain, update, and make publicly 

21 available on a regular basis the key words, 

22 terms, and phrases identified pursuant to sub23 paragraph (A); 

24 (5) establish mechanisms by which United 

25 States businesses can transmit to the Office the in-
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1 formation required to be reported by sections 203 

2 and 205 of this Act; 

3 (6) work with appropriate technology companies 

4 involved in providing, maintaining, or servicing the 

5 Internet, human rights organizations, academic ex6 perts, and others to develop a voluntary code of min7 imum corporate standards related to Internet free8 dom; and 

9 (7) advise the appropriate congressional com10 mittees of legislative action that may be necessary to 

11 keep the provisions of this Act and the amendments 

12 made by this Act relevant to changing technologies. 

13 (c) COOPERATION OF OTHER FEDERAL DEPART14 MENTS AND AGENCIES.—Each department and agency of 

15 the Government of the United States, including the De16 partment of Commerce, the Office of the United States 

17 Trade Representative, the Department of Justice, the 

18 International Broadcasting Bureau, and the Office of the 

19 Director of National Intelligence, shall— 

20 (1) cooperate fully with, and assist in the imple21 mentation of, the duties of the Office described in 

22 subsection (b), including the strategy developed by 

23 the Office pursuant to paragraph (2) of subsection 

24 (b); and 
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1 (2) make such resources and information avail2 able to the Office as is necessary to achieve the pur3 poses of this Act and the amendments made by this 

4 Act. 

5 (d) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘appro6 priate congressional committees’’ means— 

7 (1) the Committee on International Relations 

8 and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the 

9 House of Representatives; and 

10 (2) the Committee on Foreign Relations and 

11 the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans12 portation of the Senate. 

13 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

14 are authorized to be appropriated to the Office to carry 

15 out this section such sums as may be necessary for fiscal 

16 year 2007 and each subsequent fiscal year. 

17 SEC. 105. ANNUAL DESIGNATION OF INTERNET-RESTRICT18 ING COUNTRIES; REPORT. 

19 (a) DESIGNATION.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 

21 after the date of the enactment of this Act, and an22 nually thereafter, the President shall designate 

23 Internet-restricting countries for purposes of this 

24 Act. 
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1 (2) STANDARD.—A foreign country shall be 

2 designated as an Internet-restricting country if the 

3 President determines that the government of the 

4 country is directly or indirectly responsible for a sys5 tematic pattern of substantial restrictions on Inter6 net freedom during the preceding one-year period. 

7 (3) INITIAL DESIGNEES.— 

8 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each of the countries 

9 specified in subparagraph (B) shall be deemed 

10 to be designated as an Internet-restricting 

11 country pursuant to paragraph (1) beginning 

12 on the date of the enactment of this Act and 

13 ending on the date on which the President cer14 tifies to the appropriate congressional commit15 tees that the country involved is no longer di16 rectly or indirectly responsible for a systematic 

17 pattern of substantial restrictions on Internet 

18 freedom. 

19 (B) COUNTRIES.—The countries referred 

20 to in subparagraph (A) are Burma, the People’s 

21 Republic of China, Iran, North Korea, Tunisia, 

22 Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. 

23 (b) REPORT.— 

24 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 

25 after the date of the enactment of this Act, and an-
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1 nually thereafter, the President shall transmit to the 

2 appropriate congressional committees a report that 

3 contains the following: 

4 (A) The name of each foreign country that 

5 at the time of the transmission of the report is 

6 designated as an Internet-restricting country 

7 pursuant to subsection (a). 

8 (B) An identification of each government 

9 agency and quasi-government organization re10 sponsible for the substantial restrictions on 

11 Internet freedom in each foreign country des12 ignated as an Internet-restricting country pur13 suant to subsection (a). 

14 (C) A description of efforts by the United 

15 States to counter the substantial restrictions on 

16 Internet freedom referred to in subparagraph 

17 (B). 

18 (2) FORM.—The information required by para19 graph (1)(C) of the report may be provided in a 

20 classified form if necessary. 

21 (3) INTERNET AVAILABILITY.—All unclassified 

22 portions of the report shall be made publicly avail23 able on the Internet Web site of the Department of 

24 State. 
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1 TITLE II—MINIMUM CORPORATE 

2 STANDARDS FOR ONLINE 

3 FREEDOM 

4 SEC. 201. PROTECTION OF SEARCH ENGINES AND CONTENT 

5 SERVICES. 

6 Any United States business that creates, provides, or 

7 hosts any Internet search engine or maintains an Internet 

8 content hosting service may not locate, within a designated 

9 Internet-restricting country, any computer hardware used 

10 to house, store, serve, or maintain files or other data in11 volved in providing such search engine or content hosting 

12 service. 

13 SEC. 202. INTEGRITY OF SEARCH ENGINES. 

14 Any United States business that creates, provides, or 

15 hosts any Internet search engine may not alter the oper16 ation of such search engine with respect to protected filter 

17 terms either— 

18 (1) at the request of, or by reason of any other 

19 direct or indirect communication by, of a foreign of20 ficial of an Internet-restricting country; or 

21 (2) in a manner intended or likely to produce 

22 different search engine results for users accessing 

23 the search engine from within an Internet-restricting 

24 country as compared to users elsewhere. 
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1 SEC. 203. TRANSPARENCY REGARDING SEARCH ENGINE 

2 FILTERING. 

3 Any United States business that creates, provides, or 

4 hosts an Internet search engine shall provide the Office 

5 of Global Internet Freedom, in a format and with a fre6 quency to be specified by the Office, with all terms and 

7 parameters submitted, entered, or otherwise provided by 

8 any foreign official of an Internet-restricting country, that 

9 are used to filter, limit, or otherwise affect the results pro10 vided by the search engine when used by other users. 

11 SEC. 204. PROTECTION OF UNITED STATES-SUPPORTED ON12 LINE CONTENT. 

13 A United States business that maintains an Internet 

14 content hosting service may not conduct Internet jamming 

15 of a United States-supported website or United States16 supported content in an Internet restricting country. 

17 SEC. 205. TRANSPARENCY REGARDING INTERNET CENSOR18 SHIP. 

19 Any United States business that maintains an Inter20 net content hosting service shall provide the Office of 

21 Global Internet Freedom, in a format and with a fre22 quency to be specified by the Office, with copies of all data 

23 and content that such business has, at the request of, or 

24 by reason of any other direct or indirect communication 

25 by, any foreign official of an Internet-restricting coun26 try— 
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1 (1) removed from the content hosting service of 

2 such business; 

3 (2) blocked from availability on the Internet; or 

4 (3) blocked from transmission via the Internet 

5 into or within an Internet-restricting country. 

6 SEC. 206. INTEGRITY OF USER IDENTIFYING INFORMATION. 

7 (a) USER PROTECTION.—Any United States business 

8 that maintains an Internet content hosting service may 

9 not provide to any foreign official of an Internet-restrict10 ing country information that personally identifies a par11 ticular user of such content hosting service, except for le12 gitimate foreign law enforcement purposes as determined 

13 by the Department of Justice. 

14 (b) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—Any person ag15 grieved by a violation of this section may bring an action 

16 for damages, including punitive damages, or other appro17 priate relief in the appropriate district court of the United 

18 States, without regard to the amount in controversy, and 

19 without regard to the citizenship of the parties. 

20 SEC. 207. PENALTIES. 

21 (a) CIVIL PENALTIES.—(1) Any United States busi22 ness or United States person that violates section 206(a) 

23 shall be fined not more than $2,000,000. 

24 (2) Any United States business or United States per25 son that violates sections 201, 202, 203, 204 or 205 shall 
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1 be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $10,000 im2 posed in an action brought by the Attorney General. 

3 (b) CRIMINAL PENALTIES.—(1) Any United States 

4 business that willfully violates, or willfully attempts to vio5 late section 206(a) shall be fined not more than 

6 $2,000,000, or if a natural person who is an officer, direc7 tor, employee, or agent of a United States business, or 

8 stockholder acting on behalf of such United States busi9 ness, shall be fined not more than $100,000, or impris10 oned not more than 5 years, or both. 

11 (2) Any United States business that willfully violates, 

12 or willfully attempts to violate section 201, 202, 203, 204 

13 or 205 of this Act shall be fined not more than $10,000, 

14 or if a natural person who is an officer, director, employee, 

15 or agent of a United States business, or stockholder acting 

16 on behalf of such United States business, shall be fined 

17 not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than 1 

18 year, or both. 

19 (3) Whenever a fine is imposed under paragraph (2) 

20 upon any officer, director, employee, agent, or stockholder 

21 of a United States business, such fine may not be paid, 

22 directly or indirectly, by such United States business. 
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1 TITLE III—EXPORT CONTROLS 

2 FOR INTERNET-RESTRICTING 

3 COUNTRIES 

4 SEC. 301. ESTABLISHMENT OF EXPORT CONTROLS. 

5 Not later than 90 days after the date of the enact6 ment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in consultation 

7 with the Secretary of Commerce, shall promulgate regula8 tions to ensure the establishment of appropriate foreign 

9 policy control and export license requirements before any 

10 person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States may 

11 knowingly export any item subject to sections 730 through 

12 774 of title 15, Code of Federal Regulations (commonly 

13 known as the ‘‘Export Administration Regulations’’) to an 

14 end user in an Internet-restricting country for the pur15 pose, in whole or in part, of facilitating Internet censor16 ship. 

17 SEC. 302. REPORT. 

18 Not later than 120 days after the date of the enact19 ment of this Act, the Secretary of State, in consultation 

20 with the Secretary of Commerce, shall submit to the ap21 propriate congressional committees a report describing the 

22 actions taken to implement the requirements of section 

23 301 of this Act. 

Æ