Lawmaker urges support for Global Online Freedom Act

A week before Senate lawmakers turn their attention to issues of Internet freedom, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., is making another push to round up support in the House for his Internet freedom bill. Smith circulated a letter to his colleagues this week in an effort to increase the bill's co-sponsors. The bill currently has nine bipartisan cosponsors.

Smith said his latest version of the Global Online Freedom Act builds upon an earlier version introduced in the last Congress. It would still require U.S. information technology companies to disclose the data they block and search engine results they filter when complying with the censorship policies of foreign countries. But the latest version of the bill also would require firms to keep records on and notify the attorney general of demands for information identifying users and would give the attorney general authority to order the firms not to comply.

"The new GOFA, inspired by the landmark Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, asserts a government responsibility to protect free speech and restore public confidence in U.S. business -- responsibilities Congress can never delegate to the private sector," Smith wrote.

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee is set to hold a hearing Tuesday on global Internet freedom. However, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's hearing set for Monday examining Google and China's spat over Internet freedom has been postponed for a second time due to scheduling issues, according to a spokesman for the commission's chairman, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. The commission was established by Congress in 2000 to monitor human rights and the rule of law in China.

Dorgan had originally scheduled a hearing for earlier this month after Google disclosed it planned to stop censoring its search results for users in China, a move that may force it to leave China. Google made the move after it revealed in January that it had been the victim of cyber attacks originating from China that targeted the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. A representative from Google and cybersecurity experts were expected to testify at the commission's hearing.