I 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4741 
To develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 14, 2006 
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN (for herself, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. SAXTON, Mr. WELLER, 
Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. WOLF, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. 
ISSA, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mrs. MUSGRAVE, and Mr. SIMMONS) 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. 
(8) Since the 1940s, the United States has de-
ployed anti-jamming technologies to make Voice of 
America and other United States-sponsored radio 
broadcasting available to peoples in countries with 
governments that seek to block news and informa-
tion. 
(9) The United States has thus far commenced 
only modest steps to fund and deploy technologies to 
defeat Internet jamming. To date, for example, the 
Voice of America and Radio Free Asia have com-
mitted a total of $3,000,000 for technology to 
counter Internet jamming of their websites by the 
People’s Republic of China. This technology has 
been relied upon by Voice of America and Radio 
Free Asia to ensure access to their programming, 
and it has successfully permitted 100,000 electronic 
hits per day from users in China. However, United 
States financial support for this 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 by repressive foreign 
governments; 
(3) to expedite the development and deployment 
of technologies to protect Internet freedom in coun-
tries around the world; 
(4) to authorize a substantial portion of United 
States international broadcasting resources to be 
committed to the continued development and imple-
mentation of technologies to counter Internet jam-
ming by repressive foreign governments; 
(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 spaces can be used to pro-
mote democracy and freedom in countries around 
the world; and
(6) to bring to bear the pressure of the free 
world on repressive foreign governments that engage 
in Internet jamming and the intimidation and perse-
cution by such governments of their citizens who use 
the Internet. 
SEC. 4. DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF TECH-
NOLOGIES TO DEFEAT INTERNET JAMMING 
AND CENSORSHIP. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF GLOBAL INTER-
NET FREEDOM.—There is established in the International 
Broadcasting Bureau the Office of Global Internet Free-
dom (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Office’’). The Office 
shall be headed by a Director who shall develop and imple-
ment a comprehensive global strategy to combat state- 
sponsored and state-directed Internet jamming by repres-
sive foreign governments, and the intimidation and perse-
cution by such governments of their citizens who use the 
Internet. 
(b) COOPERATION
OF OTHER FEDERAL DEPART-
MENTS AND AGENCIES.—Each department and agency of 
the United States Government shall cooperate fully with, 
and assist in the implementation of, the strategy developed 
by the Office and shall make such resources and informa-
tion available to the Office as is necessary to achieve the 
purposes of this Act.
(c) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than March 
1 of the year following the date of the enactment of this 
Act and one year thereafter, the Director of the Office 
shall submit to Congress a report on the status of state- 
sponsored and state-directed Internet jamming by repres-
sive foreign governments and a description of efforts by 
the United States to counter such jamming. Each report 
shall list the countries the governments of which engage 
in Internet jamming, provide information concerning the 
government agencies or quasi-governmental organizations 
of such governments that engage in Internet jamming; and 
describe with the greatest particularity practicable the 
technological means by which such jamming is accom-
plished. If the Director determines that such is appro-
priate, the Director may submit such report together with 
a classified annex. 
(d) LIMITATION ON AUTHORITY.—Nothing in this 
Act shall be interpreted to authorize any action by the 
United States to interfere with Internet jamming by a re-
pressive foreign government if such jamming is in further-
ance of legitimate law enforcement aims that are con-
sistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 
(e) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to the Office 
$50,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2007 and 2008.
SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that the United States 
should— 
(1) publicly, prominently, and consistently de-
nounce repressive foreign governments that engage 
in Internet jamming; 
(2) direct the United States Representative to 
the United Nations to submit a resolution at the 
next annual meeting of the United Nations Human 
Rights Commission condemning repressive foreign 
governments that engage in Internet jamming and 
deny their citizens the freedom to access and share 
information on the Internet; and 
(3) deploy, at the earliest practicable date, tech-
nologies aimed at defeating state-sponsored and 
state-directed Internet jamming by repressive for-
eign governments and the intimidation and persecu-
tion by such governments of their citizens who use 
the Internet. 
SEC. 6. DEFINITION. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘Internet jamming’’ means jam-
ming, censoring, blocking, monitoring, or restricting Inter-
net access and content by using technologies such as fire-
walls, filters, and ‘‘black boxes’’. 
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