Google Blogoscoped

Forum

Freedom: File Cannot Be Found

Anonymous [PersonRank 0]

Thursday, April 27, 2006
18 years ago2,606 views

Freedom: File Cannot Be Found
http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=TN&pubid=1280
Michael Shtender-Auerbach, The Century Foundation, 4/27/2006
  
<<While the U.S. government touts democracy promotion abroad, American companies are undermining that paradigm by providing technology that censors and prohibits the foundation of liberal democracy—freedom of expression. What we need now is congressional intervention that would force the regulation of American technology corporations doing business abroad and stop their ability to consistently place profits above the principles of freedom.

According to the OpenNet initiative, a non-profit consortium whose mission is to “investigate and challenge state filtration and surveillance practices,” Censorware, software that enables filtration of information, has been instrumental in allowing foreign governments to control and quell dissent. The governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, Yemen, and Vietnam use Censorware to suppress information containing words such as “democracy” or “human rights”; China additionally censors information pertaining to religion, like Falun Gong or the Dalai Lama; and Burma, content on Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Free speech activists have criticized Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and even Cisco for their complicity in censorship in China. However, these companies are just the tip of a much larger problem. U.S.–based Censorware companies like Fortinent, Secure Computing, and Websense are following in the footsteps of their “big brothers” and enabling censorship for some of the most deplorable regimes on Earth.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, like the First Amendment to the U.S. Bill of Rights, guarantees freedom of expression. Tragically, U.S. companies seem to ignore this principle and operate outside the parameters of international human rights standards. This is not new behavior. Multinationals like Nike, Exxon-Mobil, and Coca-Cola have all been criticized for their complicity in the violation of fundamental human rights in their foreign operations—from labor standards to forced population removal. The difference with technology companies is that the fundamental character of the Internet—that of egalitarianism—are abandoning those principles and violating my generation’s contribution to the promotion of democracy.

Congressional oversight is necessary. U.S. companies are making millions of dollars in contracts that enable the censoring of information and that continue to undermine the principle Americans hold most dear—freedom. Whether this software intentionally deletes one of the 60 billion e-mails sent globally each day, or shuts down access to one of the thousands of blogs alleged to be operating within this “iron fire-curtain,” U.S. companies are profiting from their watchdog software—at the expense of our own national interest.

Ironically, a program within the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the Iran-Syria Operations Group (ISOG), led by Vice President Cheney’s daughter, Elizabeth Cheney, operates with an $80 million dollar budget for the promotion of democracy in Iran and Syria. This program and others have invested in anonymous Internet communication systems like TOR that allow users to bypass government censors. So, while the State Department is actively helping Iranian dissidents, Congress is turning a blind eye to U.S. corporations that are providing the tools of control to other, more repressive regimes. How can we demand freedom of expression in one country—and accept the denial of it in another—just because of corporate interests and financial gain?

Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ)—and his bill titled “Global Online Freedom Act of 2006”—is weak at best, and has more to do with his long-standing crusade a ga inst trade normalization with China than it has to do with regulating firms like Google and Yahoo! Microsoft’s Bill Gates, who gave a recent interview in the Financial Times, said that the U.S. government should regulate and give guidance on American Internet companies doing business abroad, similar to how the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has sought to reign in corporate bribery abroad. Gates, who profits greatly from doing business in places like Viet na m and Chi na recognizes the need for guidelines and regulations in order to maintain corporate integrity to uphold basic human rights.

At a time in history when the world is watching the United States closely as we criticize repressive governments and advocate freedom and democracy for all people, it is imperative that we behave in accordance with the principles we set forth for basic human rights. It is time for Congress to enact the regulation needed to diminish bottom-line profits in favor of the basic principles of freedom.

Michael Shtender-Auerbach writes on foreign policy for The Century Foundation and is press director for the Security and Peace Initiative.>>

Forum home

Advertisement

 
Blog  |  Forum     more >> Archive | Feed | Google's blogs | About
Advertisement

 

This site unofficially covers Google™ and more with some rights reserved. Join our forum!