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TechnologyDaily Mobile
The Empty-Chair Internet Hearing
by Danielle Belopotosky
As members of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus try to learn more about China's Internet filtering at a Capitol Hill briefing on Wednesday, many eyes will be focused on the empty chairs reserved for U.S. company officials invited to testify.
Representatives from Cisco Systems, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo were invited to attend, but as of Tuesday, Microsoft and Google had declined, while Cisco and Yahoo had not committed, according to Ryan Keating, a spokesman for Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who will chair the briefing.
While Google said it has conducted staff-level briefings, including one with the House caucus, the company said it plans to send a written statement.
Witnesses confirmed to testify at the hearing include representatives from the human rights' groups Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters without Borders. Others include Nart Villeneuve of Toronto University and John Palfrey of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, who have conducted studies on Internet filtering in China.
The 'Great Firewall' Of China
At issue in China is whether U.S. companies contribute to limits on the free flow of information online. Yahoo has come under fire for supplying the Chinese government with personal e-mail information. Microsoft has deleted from its hosting service Web logs or certain words from blogs that criticize government policy. And Google last week announced that it would abide by Chinese laws and filter its new Chinese search service, Google.cn.
The Chinese Google, as opposed to Google.com, scrubs certain Web sites, Internet addresses and keywords that violate China's moral and legal codes. A Google statement said the Chinese site is part of the company's efforts to "advance our mission in making all the world's information universally available and accessible."
In a side-by-side search of the two versions conducted by National Journal's Technology Daily, search results varied by the thousands or even millions. A search on "Tiananmen Square," the site of 1989 student-led anti-government protests that led to an estimated 2,600 deaths in China, yielded 2.95 million results at Google.com, compared with 13,700 at Google.cn. When "massacre" was added to the search, the hit difference was 400,000 to 739.
Google includes a disclaimer at the bottom of Google.cn search results to notify users that some results may have been eliminated by mandatory filtering. The company has similar notifications in the United States, France and Germany in order to comply with copyright or anti-hate laws.
Google also has announced that it will not deploy its free e-mail or blogging services until the company is "comfortable that we can do so in a manner that respects our users' interests in the privacy of their personal communications," Google Senior Policy Counsel Andrew McLaughlin posted on the company's blog.
Google's filtering is just one layer used by the Chinese government. A 2005 study conducted by the OpenNet Initiative found that China's "gateway filtering, and not the search engines themselves," blocked certain keyword searches.
Users inside of China who try to access outlawed content from Google.com will hit China's "great firewall." After several attempts to search for a black-listed term, Web browsers automatically shut down, according to independent test searches conducted in China.
A Debate About Social Responsibility
China's "great firewall" has some observers focusing their attention on what the U.S. government can do to pressure China to ease its Internet regulations and laws.
"The agreements the industry enters into with the Chinese government, whether tacit or written, go against the IT industry's claim that it promotes the right to freedom of information of all people, at all time, everywhere," Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene Khan said last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Leslie Harris, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the underlying debate over China's Internet policy is a human rights issue. "There is only so long we can wring our hand and point fingers," she said, noting that the U.S. government needs to "figure out a way to be a force of openness here" and participate in the dialogue to find a solution to ending human rights abuses in China, including Internet censorship.
Reporters without Borders and the U.S.-China Commission have made policy recommendations, which Rep. Ryan's office will carefully study after Wednesday's briefing, Keating said. He noted that Ryan also may consider drafting legislation to move the issue forward.
One company already has made a change as the debate continues. On Tuesday, Microsoft amended its policy on blog filtering. Previously, sites were edited or deleted without alerting bloggers; in the future, users will be notified that government mandates required Microsoft to act.
The House International Relations Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations Subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the issue Feb. 15. While the same U.S. companies have been invited to testify, "no one has declined" thus far, said a spokesman for panel Chairman Christopher Smith, R-N.J.
Smith, also a member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, has voted against permanent trade relations with China and its accession to the World Trade Organization.
Spain's Mobile Market Expected to Expand
In other news, the European Commission on Tuesday endorsed a proposal by Spain's telecommunications regulator to open its mobile market.
Under the plan, mobile operators who lease connectivity from another carrier to offer services would be granted access to the networks of Amena, Telefonica and Vodafone. The so-called Mobile Virtual Network Operators will be able to access those networks and expand services to their retail customers in the future.
Under a European Union directive for electronic communication, Spain's regulatory commission must examine competition in its mobile markets to ensure the consistent application of a competitive marketplace, according to the commission. The Spanish proposal would "increase competition in the Spanish retail mobile telephone market and benefit 40 million Spanish customers," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in statement.
And in India, Paula Dobriansky, the U.S. State Department's undersecretary for democracy and global affairs, is leading a delegation this week for a fourth U.S.-India global issues forum. The agenda will focus on promoting human rights, combating human trafficking, and fostering science and technology, according to the department.
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