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Global Internet Freedom Act, Flawed in More Ways than One
Posted by Ernest Miller on Thursday, December 12 @ 23:02:42 EST Free Expression
The USC (wooo! Orange Bowl) Annenberg School for Communication's Online Journalism Review publishes an informative article on the bill introduced as the Global Internet Freedom Act [PDF] (U.S. May Take on Role as Anti-Censorship Champion). The bill will provide $100 million in federal funding for technology efforts that will supposedly assist people in getting around Internet censorship, in China for example.

The article features the responses of a number of human rights activists, who support the goals and rhetoric of the bill, if not the implementation itself. The author of the article notes that the bill doesn't mention countries that censor the Internet, but are also US allies. Nor is the question of anonymity addressed, which is crucial for many who are oppressed by a surveillance state. Additionally, some activists are concerned that the goals and means of the act seem to conflict with other US government interests that favor monitoring and censorship, and in such a conflict, proponents of greater liberty are likely to lose out.

The article, however, does not note how this conflict is already resolved by the bill through a loophole that turns it into $100 million pork, as LawMeme reported when the bill was introduced ("Global Internet Freedom Act" Compromised by Glaring Loophole).

 
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