Pressure on internet businesses to tackle the human rights implications
of online censorship has intensified with the publication of a Bill in
the US that would allow prosecutions for censorship offences committed
abroad.
The Global Online Freedom Bill, introduced into the
House of Representatives by the Republican Chris Smith, who chairs the
House international human rights committee, proposes fining US-based
businesses up to $2million (£1.15m) for giving foreign country
officials any information that identifies a particular user of their
internet hosting service.
The measure would apply to companies
doing business in ‘internet-restricting’ nations – a designation likely
to include China, Iran and Vietnam.
In addition, the measure
would make it unlawful to filter search results in such countries at
the request of governments, with directors jailed for up to a year if
found guilty.
The proposed law would establish an Office of
Global Internet Freedom, which, among other things, would work with
companies and human rights groups to produce a voluntary code of
corporate standards on ‘internet freedom’.
The Bill has been
introduced amid a rising clamour for internet companies to formulate
clear policies on how they should respond to demands for censorship of
web content from repressive governments (EP7, issue 7, p4).
Yahoo! and Google have been criticized recently for censoring the
Chinese versions of their search engines at the behest of the
authorities. Yahoo! China has also been attacked for handing over
information that led to the imprisonment of Chinese ‘cyber-dissidents’
Li Zhi and Shi Tao in 2003 and 2005 respectively. The company was
required to do so by Chinese law, which forbids advocating democracy.
It
is not yet clear how many supporters Smith, who has been voicing
concerns over human rights in China for two decades, will muster. The
Bill faces a long, hard road to enactment, with opponents contending
that it would put American businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
However, many observers believe the threat of regulation will at least
spur internet companies to develop policies on censorship. The press
freedom pressure group, Reporters Without Borders, argued that the
effect of the proposal, allied to recent media attention on internet
censorship, would ‘push the companies to regulate themselves’.
Elliot
Schrage, Google’s vice-president, told EP the company supports industry
action ‘to define common principles to guide the practices of
technology firms in countries that restrict access to information’. He
said Google would ‘work with the US executive and legislative branches
to encourage a constructive approach’.
The CSR Blokes and
CSR Chicks networks, which are online forums for individuals with an
interest in responsible business practice, have been debating whether
to sever their links with Yahoo!, their email traffic host, in protest
at the company’s conduct in China. However, the debate appears to have
settled in favour of remaining with Yahoo!
