LOS ANGELES—With a reported rise in “digital authoritarianism” over the past two years — as documented by a Freedom House study showing a growing number of incidents involving government censorship and control of the internet — a bipartisan group of United States lawmakers are looking for ways to thwart countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from stifling the flow of online information.
Two Republicans and two Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday introduced the Open Technology Fund Authorization Act, a bill that would pour money into projects aimed at getting around government censorship, through the nonprofit Open Technology Fund (OTF), and allow global users access to sites and information online that their governments would otherwise block, according to a report by The Hill.
“The U.S. Agency for Global Media has already made significant headway to improve internet freedom globally,” Texas Republican Mike McCaul said, as quoted by Radio Farda — which is the Iranian outlet of the Agency for Global Media. “This bill will better position the U.S. to help those fighting against this form of tyranny.”
The legislation comes about eight months after a Donald Trump executive order that authorized the FCC to “explore all regulatory and legislative solutions to protect free speech and the free speech rights of all Americans” — an order that digital rights activists said was actually a go-ahead for government censorship in the United States.
Fight For The Future deputy director Evan Greer said that the executive order “would allow mass government censorship of online content. In practice, it means whichever party is in power can decide what speech is allowed on the internet.”
But China leads the world in internet censorship according to the 2018 Freedom House study The Rise Of Digital Authoritarianism. In addition to the sweeping measures the country has taken to build a digital “Great Firewall,” blocking any content not approved by the government there, China has more recently come under criticism for blocking information about the spread of coronavirus.
“Censorship, harassment and punishment for speaking out are hindering the fight against the coronavirus outbreak,” the rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. “Many are questioning how censorship may have delayed an effective response to the virus outbreak and put lives at risk.”
But according to Democrat Eliot Engel, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, “If a repressive regime builds a wall, the OTF is working to build an even taller ladder."
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