I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2216 
To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 10, 2005 
Mr. COX (for himself, Mr. LANTOS, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. SAXTON, Mr. 
WELLER, Mr. SCHIFF, and Mr. ACKERMAN) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on International Relations 
A BILL 
To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet 
jamming. 
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. 
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 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 constitutional provisions 
guarantee the rights of Americans to communicate 
and associate with one another without restriction, 
including unfettered communication and association 
via the Internet. Article 19 of the Universal Declara-
tion of Human Rights of the United Nations explic-
itly guarantees the freedom to ‘‘receive and impart 
information and ideas through any media and re-
gardless of frontiers’’. 
(2) All peoples have the right to communicate 
freely with others, and to have unrestricted access to 
news and information, including on the Internet. 
(3) With nearly 14 percent of the population of 
the world now online, and an increasing number of 
people gaining access to the Internet each day, the 
Internet stands to become the most powerful engine 
for democratization and the free exchange of ideas 
ever invented. 
(4) Unrestricted access to news and information 
on the Internet is a check on authoritarian rule by 
repressive foreign governments in countries around 
the world.
(5) The governments of Burma, Cuba, Iran, 
Laos, the Maldives, North Korea, the People’s Re-
public of China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam, 
among others, are taking active measures to prevent 
their citizens from freely accessing the Internet and 
from obtaining international political, religious, and 
economic news and information. 
(6) Intergovernmental, nongovernmental, and 
media organizations have reported the widespread 
and increasing pattern by repressive foreign govern-
ments of Internet jamming, including jamming, cen-
soring, blocking, monitoring, and restricting Internet 
access and content by using technologies such as 
firewalls, filters, and ‘‘black boxes’’. Such inter-
ference with individual activity on the Internet in-
cludes surveillance of e-mail messages, message 
boards, and the use of particular words, ‘‘stealth 
blocking’’ 
individuals 
from 
visiting 
particular 
websites, the development of ‘‘black lists’’ of users 
who seek to visit these websites, and the complete 
denial of access to the Internet. 
(7) The websites of 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.