WASHINGTON: Crackdown on internet spying for dicatorships
Updated
A U-S Congress panel has backed legislation to stop internet companies aiding authorities in China to crackdown on dissidents publishing their writings on the worldwide web. If passes, the Global Online Freedom Act will punish those American companies who cooperate with China's technological surveillance of political dissidents.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch in Washington
LAM: Sophie Richardson, this bill follows a number of high profile arrests of Chinese dissents on the basis of information handed over by large internet firms. Briefly, can you tell us how companies like Yahoo helped the Chinese authorities crackdown on free speech?
RICHARDSON: Well, in effect, what happened in the Yahoo case was that one of Yahoo's subsidiaries handed over the personal user information of a man who was subsequently prosecuted on charges of sharing trade secrets with people outside the country and this comparable to what's happened in a number of other cases where essentially the companies have been approached by public security bureau officials and asked to help identify particular individuals for their online discussions, for which they've subsequently been prosecuted.
LAM: I understand it will be sometime before the bill might become law. So what's the significance of the Congressional panel voting to support it now?
RICHARDSON: I think the timing has much to do with a separate hearing that's going to be held in about two weeks when Yahoo officials are going to be asked to explain in far greater detail and with more accuracy and honesty than they did the last time they were made to do this. I think there are a number of people in Congress who feel that Yahoo was not forthcoming with all the information it had at the time and so I think the bill getting through this committee is designed to put some pressure on Yahoo, in advance to the discussion that is going to take place in about two weeks.
LAM: And, apart from Yahoo and the other huge provider, Google, both accused of cooperating with Chinese authorities in internet policing, what other companies are in the lawmakers sights that you are aware of?
RICHARDSON: The other two who have gotten a fair amount of public scrutiny are Microsoft and Skype, but there are also a number of well quite a large number of service and equipment providers that sell various pieces of technology gear to the Chinese Government, and particularly to the public security bureau, who theoretically would come under similar scrutiny.
LAM: And is this law aimed specifically at internet companies operating in China or are there other countries as well, where these companies are misbehaving?
RICHARDSON: Most of the discussion has been about China and I think this, Congressman Smith has a particular interest in China. The draft legislation mentions places such as Vietnam and Tunisia, which are also known to restrict internet activities. But, it's broadly written enough so that just about any country that meets certain criteria could be designated as an internet restricting country and therefore these sanctions would apply.
LAM: And Sophie, Human Rights Watch of course has been following this issue for sometime now. And yet internet companies do have a fine balance to strike do they not between dealing with repressive states like China and operating in a positive business environment?
RICHARDSON: Well yes and no. The point that we've consistently tried to make is that there's a great deal more that the companies could do and that in fact a lot of the censorship in which they've engaged has actually been done voluntarily in an effort to avoid having bad relations with governments like China's and so at a minimum, they could stop doing that voluntarily and then put in place a process that could be challenged later on when they are given those kinds of requests for information, so that they would actually be some sort of back and forth that could be tracked and challenged.
LAM: And so just briefly Sophie, do you think this new law if it's passed that it will have a meaningful impact to stop internet companies from cooperatiing?
RICHARDSON: It's a little bit hard to say just yet. Certainly the companies want it because then the pressure is to some extent off them and on the state department and American authorities to make these decisions for them. At the same time, we're a little uncomfortable about designating the United States Government as some sort of global arbiter of what is or isn't free speech.
