IB 
Union Calendar No. 320 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 275 
[Report No. 110–481, Part I] 
To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States 
businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian 
foreign governments, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 5, 2007 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself and Mr. WOLF) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and 
in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to 
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
DECEMBER 10, 2007 
Reported from the Committee on Foreign Affairs with an amendment 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
DECEMBER 10, 2007 
Referral to Committee on Energy and Commerce extended for a period ending 
not later than January 16, 2008 
JANUARY 15, 2008 
Referral to Committee on Energy and Commerce extended for a period ending 
not later than February 1, 2008 
JANUARY 16, 2008 
Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary for a period ending not later than 
February 1, 2008 for consideration of such provisions of the bill and 
amendment as fall within the jurisdiction of that committee pursuant to 
clause 1(k), rule X 
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FEBRUARY 1, 2008 
Referral to the Committee on the Judiciary extended for a period ending not 
later than February 8, 2008 
FEBRUARY 1, 2008 
Referral to the Committee on Energy and Commerce extended for a period 
ending not later than February 22, 2008 
FEBRUARY 8, 2008 
Referral to the Committee on the Judiciary extended for a period ending not 
later than February 22, 2008 
FEBRUARY 22, 2008 
Additional sponsors: Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, 
Mr. LANTOS, Mr. WU, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, and Mr. SHERMAN 
FEBRUARY 22, 2008 
Committees on Energy and Commerce and the Judiciary discharged; com-
mitted to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 
and ordered to be printed 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 5, 2007] 
A BILL 
To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect 
United States businesses from coercion to participate 
in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Global Online Freedom Act of 2007’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
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Sec. 3. Definitions. 
Sec. 4. Severability. 
TITLE I—PROMOTION OF GLOBAL INTERNET FREEDOM 
Sec. 101. Statement of policy. 
Sec. 102. Sense of Congress. 
Sec. 103. Annual country reports on human rights practices. 
Sec. 104. Office of Global Internet Freedom. 
Sec. 105. Annual designation of Internet-restricting countries; report. 
TITLE II—MINIMUM CORPORATE STANDARDS FOR ONLINE 
FREEDOM 
Sec. 201. Protection of personally identifiable information. 
Sec. 202. Integrity of personally identifiable information. 
Sec. 203. Transparency regarding search engine filtering. 
Sec. 204. Transparency regarding Internet censorship. 
Sec. 205. Protection of United States-supported online content. 
Sec. 206. Penalties. 
Sec. 207. Presidential waiver. 
TITLE III—EXPORT CONTROLS FOR INTERNET-RESTRICTING 
COUNTRIES 
Sec. 301. Feasibility study on establishment of export controls. 
Sec. 302. Report. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Freedom of speech and freedom of the press 
are fundamental human rights, and free flow of infor-
mation on the Internet is protected in Article 19 of 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which 
guarantees freedom to ‘‘receive and impart informa-
tion and ideas through any media regardless of fron-
tiers’’. 
(2) The Internet has been a success because it 
quickly provides information to its more than one bil-
lion users globally. 
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(3) The growth of the Internet and other infor-
mation technologies can be a force for democratic 
change if the information is not subject to political 
censorship. 
(4) The Internet has played a role in bringing 
international attention to issues the discussion of 
which are forbidden by authoritarian foreign govern-
ments, such as attempts by the Government of the 
People’s Republic of China to suppress news of the se-
vere acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 
2004. 
(5) Authoritarian foreign governments such as 
the Governments of Belarus, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, 
Laos, North Korea, the People’s Republic of China, 
Tunisia, and Vietnam, among others, block, restrict, 
and monitor the information their citizens try to ob-
tain. 
(6) Web sites that provide uncensored news and 
information, such as the Web sites of the Voice of 
America and Radio Free Asia, are routinely blocked 
in such countries. 
(7) In June 2003, the Government of the Social-
ist Republic of Vietnam arrested, convicted of ‘‘spy-
ing’’, and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment and 3 
years house arrest (later reduced on appeal to 5 years 
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imprisonment and 3 years house arrest) Dr. Pham 
Hong Son after he translated an Internet article ti-
tled ‘‘What is Democracy’’ from the Web site of the 
United States Embassy in Vietnam. 
(8) According to the Department of State’s Coun-
try Reports on Human Rights Practices, the Govern-
ment of Vietnam in 2004 tightened control of the 
Internet, requiring Internet agents, such as ‘‘cyber 
cafes’’, to register the personal information of their 
customers and store records of Internet sites visited by 
customers. The Vietnamese Government also mon-
itored electronic mail, searched for sensitive key 
words, and regulated Internet content. 
(9) The Government of the People’s Republic of 
China has employed censorship of the Internet in vio-
lation of Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution, which 
guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. 
(10) This censorship by the Chinese Government 
allows that Government to promote a xenophobic— 
and at times particularly anti-American—Chinese 
nationalism, the long-term effect of which will be dele-
terious to United States efforts to improve the rela-
tionship between the United States and China. 
(11) Technology companies in the United States 
that operate in countries controlled by authoritarian 
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