Increasing global demand for an uncensored Internet - how the U.S. can help defeat online censorship by facilitating private action

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Jan, 2008 by Andrew W. Lloyd

Under the "advancing" priority, the GIFT fact sheet essentially outlines pre-existing government funds and projects supporting Internet freedom causes that it expects to continue. (101) The fact sheet mentions both government programs (USAID and the Telecommunications Leadership Program) and public-private partnerships (the Digital Freedom Initiative) that have helped to expand Internet access in developing countries. (102) The fact sheet also includes the announcement by the State Department's Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of a $500,000 grant program "for innovative proposals and cutting-edge approaches to combat Internet censorship in countries seeking to restrict basic human rights, including freedom of expression." (103)

As a basis for the establishment of GIFT, the fact sheet states that "freedom of expression is a universal right." (104) GIFT cites in support of this statement both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (105) GIFT claims that international law allows limited restrictions on speech for "legitimate government purposes" such as "national security" and "public order." (106) However, "repressive regimes misuse such exceptions as a pretext to censor speech about democracy and human rights and suppress dissent." (107)

E. The Role of U.S. Corporations in China's Internet Censorship

On August 1, 2002, the Chinese government enacted legislation requiring ISPs to self-censor their websites. (108) If an ISP does not comply, the government may shut down the websites. (109) Before the legislation was enacted, many businesses and other organizations signed a voluntary, government-sponsored "Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the China Internet Industry." (110) This list included some Western corporations, including Yahoo!. (111) The pledge stated in part that "[s]ignatories agree to refrain from producing, posting or disseminating harmful information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability." (112)

The U.S. companies that signed the pledge or otherwise censor versions of their sites specifically for China are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on such censorship through personnel training and the purchasing and maintenance of equipment. (113) Complying with China's censorship standards also presents practical difficulties for a search engine, as the Chinese government will not give companies a list of the government's blocked sites or keywords. (114) In order to create the self-censored Google.cn search engine, Google set up computers inside China to access international sites, one after another, adding blocked sites to the search engine's own blacklist. (115) The costs incurred by self-censoring ISPs and websites in efforts to comply with China's censorship laws allow the Chinese government to save money and resources that would otherwise be devoted to developing censorship methods and policing these sites. (116)

U.S. companies also provide China with various pieces of its Internet filtering software: "Cisco's firewalls help the Chinese government monitor email; Microsoft proxy servers block Web pages; Nortel aids the Chinese government in tracking its citizens' surfing habits; and Websense contributes sophisticated filtering and monitoring techniques." (117) Yahoo! has even given the Chinese government personal information about alleged dissidents. (118)