I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 48

To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and 

censorship. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 7, 2003

Mr. COX (for himself, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. 

POMEROY, Mr. WELLER, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, and Mr. SCHIFF) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations 

A BILL

To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet 

jamming and censorship.

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. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Global Internet Free5 dom Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress makes the following findings: 

8 (1) Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, 

9 and freedom of association are fundamental charac-
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1 teristics of a free society. The first amendment to 

2 the Constitution of the United States guarantees 

3 that ‘‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the 

4 freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of 

5 the people peaceably to assemble.’’ These constitu6 tional provisions guarantee the rights of Americans 

7 to communicate and associate with one another 

8 without restriction, including unfettered communica9 tion and association via the Internet. Article 19 of 

10 the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of 

11 Human Rights explicitly guarantees the freedom to 

12 ‘‘receive and impart information and ideas through 

13 any media and regardless of frontiers’’. 

14 (2) All people have the right to communicate 

15 freely with others, and to have unrestricted access to 

16 news and information, on the Internet. 

17 (3) With nearly 10 percent of the world’s popu18 lation now online, and more gaining access each day, 

19 the Internet stands to become the most powerful en20 gine for democratization and the free exchange of 

21 ideas ever invented. 

22 (4) Unrestricted access to news and information 

23 on the Internet is a check on repressive rule by au24 thoritarian regimes around the world. 
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1 (5) The governments of Burma, Cuba, Laos, 

2 North Korea, the People’s Republic of China, Saudi 

3 Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam, among others, are tak4 ing active measures to keep their citizens from freely 

5 accessing the Internet and obtaining international 

6 political, religious, and economic news and informa7 tion. 

8 (6) Intergovernmental, nongovernmental, and 

9 media organizations have reported the widespread 

10 and increasing pattern by authoritarian governments 

11 to block, jam, and monitor Internet access and con12 tent, using technologies such as firewalls, filters, and 

13 ‘‘black boxes’’. Such jamming and monitoring of in14 dividual activity on the Internet includes surveillance 

15 of e-mail messages, message boards, and the use of 

16 particular words; ‘‘stealth blocking’’ individuals from 

17 visiting websites; the development of ‘‘black lists’’ of 

18 users that seek to visit these websites; and the denial 

19 of access to the Internet. 

20 (7) The Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, 

21 as well as hundreds of news sources with an internet 

22 presence, are routinely being jammed by repressive 

23 governments. 

24 (8) Since the 1940s, the United States has de25 ployed anti-jamming technologies to make Voice of 
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1 America and other United States Government spon2 sored broadcasting available to people in nations 

3 with governments that seek to block news and infor4 mation. 

5 (9) The United States Government has thus far 

6 commenced only modest steps to fund and deploy 

7 technologies to defeat Internet censorship. To date, 

8 the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia have 

9 committed a total of $1,000,000 for technology to 

10 counter Internet jamming by the People’s Republic 

11 of China. This technology, which has been successful 

12 in attracting 100,000 electronic hits per day from 

13 the People’s Republic of China, has been relied upon 

14 by Voice of America and Radio Free Asia to ensure 

15 access to their programming by citizens of the Peo16 ple’s Republic of China, but United States Govern17 ment financial support for the technology has 

18 lapsed. In most other countries there is no meaning19 ful United States support for Internet freedom. 

20 (10) The success of United States policy in sup21 port of freedom of speech, press, and association re22 quires new initiatives to defeat totalitarian and au23 thoritarian controls on news and information over 

24 the Internet. 
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1 SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 

2 The purposes of this Act are—

3 (1) to adopt an effective and robust global 

4 Internet freedom policy; 

5 (2) to establish an office within the Inter6 national Broadcasting Bureau with the sole mission 

7 of countering Internet jamming and blocking by re8 pressive regimes; 

9 (3) to expedite the development and deployment 

10 of technology to protect Internet freedom around the 

11 world; 

12 (4) to authorize the commitment of a substan13 tial portion of United States international broad14 casting resources to the continued development and 

15 implementation of technologies to counter the jam16 ming of the Internet; 

17 (5) to utilize the expertise of the private sector 

18 in the development and implementation of such tech19 nologies, so that the many current technologies used 

20 commercially for securing business transactions and 

21 providing virtual meeting space can be used to pro22 mote democracy and freedom; and 

23 (6) to bring to bear the pressure of the free 

24 world on repressive governments guilty of Internet 

25 censorship and the intimidation and persecution of 

26 their citizens who use the Internet. 
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1 SEC. 4. DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF TECH2 NOLOGIES TO DEFEAT INTERNET JAMMING 

3 AND CENSORSHIP. 

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF GLOBAL INTER5 NET FREEDOM.—There is established in the International 

6 Broadcasting Bureau the Office of Global Internet Free7 dom (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Office’’). 

8 The Office shall be headed by a Director who shall develop 

9 and implement a comprehensive global strategy to combat 

10 state-sponsored and state-directed Internet jamming, and 

11 persecution of those who use the Internet. 

12 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

13 are authorized to be appropriated to the Office 

14 $50,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2003 and 2004. 

15 (c) COOPERATION OF OTHER FEDERAL DEPART16 MENTS AND AGENCIES.—Each department and agency of 

17 the United States Government shall cooperate fully with, 

18 and assist in the implementation of, the strategy developed 

19 by the Office and shall make such resources and informa20 tion available to the Office as is necessary to the achieve21 ment of the purposes of this Act. 

22 (d) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—On March 1 following 

23 the date of the enactment of this Act and annually there24 after, the Director of the Office shall submit to the Con25 gress a report on the status of state interference with 

26 Internet use and of efforts by the United States to counter 
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1 such interference. Each report shall list the countries that 

2 pursue policies of Internet censorship, blocking, and other 

3 abuses; provide information concerning the government 

4 agencies or quasi-governmental organizations that imple5 ment Internet censorship; and describe with the greatest 

6 particularity practicable the technological means by which 

7 such blocking and other abuses are accomplished. In the 

8 discretion of the Director, such report may be submitted 

9 in both a classified and nonclassified version. 

10 (e) LIMITATION ON AUTHORITY.—Nothing in this 

11 Act shall be interpreted to authorize any action by the 

12 United States to interfere with foreign national censorship 

13 in furtherance of legitimate law enforcement aims that is 

14 consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human 

15 Rights. 

16 SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

17 It is the sense of the Congress that the United States 

18 should—

19 (1) publicly, prominently, and consistently de20 nounce governments that restrict, censor, ban, and 

21 block access to information on the Internet; 

22 (2) direct the United States Representative to 

23 the United Nations to submit a resolution at the 

24 next annual meeting of the United Nations Human 

25 Rights Commission condemning all governments 
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1 that practice Internet censorship and deny freedom 

2 to access and share information; and 

3 (3) deploy, at the earliest practicable date, tech4 nologies aimed at defeating state-directed Internet 

5 censorship and the persecution of those who use the 

6 Internet.

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