I 
107TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5524
To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and 
censorship. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 2, 2002
Mr. COX (for himself and Mr. LANTOS) 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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Global Internet Free-
dom Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, 
and freedom of association are fundamental charac-
teristics of a free society. The first amendment to
the Constitution of the United States guarantees 
that ‘‘Congress shall make no law ... abridging the 
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of 
the people peaceably to assemble.’’ These constitu-
tional provisions guarantee the rights of Americans 
to communicate and associate with one another 
without restriction, including unfettered communica-
tion and association via the Internet. Article 19 of 
the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of 
Human Rights explicitly guarantees the freedom to 
‘‘receive and impart information and ideas through 
any media and regardless of frontiers’’. 
(2) All people have the right to communicate 
freely with others, and to have unrestricted access to 
news and information, on the Internet. 
(3) With nearly 10 percent of the world’s popu-
lation now online, and more gaining access each day, 
the Internet stands to become the most powerful en-
gine for democratization and the free exchange of 
ideas ever invented. 
(4) Unrestricted access to news and information 
on the Internet is a check on repressive rule by au-
thoritarian regimes around the world. 
(5) The governments of Burma, Cuba, Laos, 
North Korea, the People’s Republic of China, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam, among others, are tak-
ing active measures to keep their citizens from freely 
accessing the Internet and obtaining international 
political, religious, and economic news and informa-
tion. 
(6) Intergovernmental, nongovernmental, and 
media organizations have reported the widespread 
and increasing pattern by authoritarian governments 
to block, jam, and monitor Internet access and con-
tent, using technologies such as firewalls, filters, and 
‘‘black boxes’’. Such jamming and monitoring of in-
dividual activity on the Internet includes surveillance 
of e-mail messages, message boards, and the use of 
particular words; ‘‘stealth blocking’’ individuals from 
visiting websites; the development of ‘‘black lists’’ of 
users that seek to visit these websites; and the denial 
of access to the Internet. 
(7) The Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, 
as well as hundreds of news sources with an Internet
presence, are routinely being jammed by repressive 
governments. 
(8) Since the 1940s, the United States has de-
ployed anti-jamming technologies to make Voice of 
America and other United States Government spon-
sored broadcasting available to people in nations
with governments that seek to block news and infor-
mation. 
(9) The United States Government has thus far 
commenced only modest steps to fund and deploy 
technologies to defeat Internet censorship. To date, 
the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia have 
committed a total of $1,000,000 for technology to 
counter Internet jamming by the People’s Republic 
of China. This technology, which has been successful 
in attracting 100,000 electronic hits per day from 
the People’s Republic of China, has been relied upon 
by Voice of America and Radio Free Asia to ensure 
access to their programming by citizens of the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China, but United States Govern-
ment financial support for the technology has 
lapsed. In most other countries there is no meaning-
ful United States support for Internet freedom. 
(10) The success of United States policy in sup-
port of freedom of speech, press, and association re-
quires new initiatives to defeat totalitarian and au-
thoritarian controls on news and information over 
the Internet. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to adopt an effective and robust global 
Internet freedom policy; 
(2) to establish an office within the Inter-
national Broadcasting Bureau with the sole mission 
of countering Internet jamming and blocking by re-
pressive regimes; 
(3) to expedite the development and deployment 
of technology to protect Internet freedom around the 
world; 
(4) to authorize the commitment of a substan-
tial portion of United States international broad-
casting resources to the continued development and 
implementation of technologies to counter the jam-
ming of the Internet; 
(5) to utilize the expertise of the private sector 
in the development and implementation of such tech-
nologies, so that the many current technologies used 
commercially for securing business transactions and 
providing virtual meeting space can be used to pro-
mote democracy and freedom; and 
(6) to bring to bear the pressure of the free 
world on repressive governments guilty of Internet 
censorship and the intimidation and persecution of 
their citizens who use the Internet.