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) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Inter-
national 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