Let global online freedom ring?

LET GLOBAL ONLINE FREEDOM RING?
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Eric J. Sinrod]
[Commentary] A commentary on the Global Online Freedom Act of 2006 (HR 4780), a bill "to promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States business from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and for other purposes." The bill provides the following statement of policy for the United States to: "Promote the ability of all to access and contribute information, ideas and knowledge via the Internet, and to advance the right to receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers as a fundamental component of United States foreign policy"; "Use all instruments of United States influence, including diplomacy, trade policy and export control, to support, promote and strengthen principles, practices and values that promote the free flow of information"; and "Prohibit any United States business from cooperating with officials of Internet-restricting countries in effecting political censorship of online content." The bill proposes a process whereby the president would designate certain foreign countries as "Internet-restricting" regions that are "directly or indirectly responsible for a systematic pattern of substantial restrictions on Internet freedom during the preceding one-year period." The bill then goes on to provide restrictions on United States businesses with respect to Internet-restricting countries. For example, under certain circumstances, U.S. businesses that host Internet search engines or maintain Internet content hosting services could not locate computer hardware in Internet-restricting countries. Is it realistic to think that Internet-restricting countries will change their restricting policies because U.S. businesses might be penalized because of the restrictions put in place in those countries? The restrictions are established at the government level, and are not directed or controlled by the U.S. businesses. There might be a better way to seek to achieve global online freedom, notwithstanding the lofty goals of H.R. 4780, Sinrod concludes.
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