State Department Targets Undecideds with Internet Freedom Message
The State Department intends to intervene early with nations still lacking comprehensive Internet use policies, to get them to embrace Internet freedom, though it continues to lean on China and other regimes that already apply heavy restrictions, an agency official said Thursday. He spoke at the first meeting this year of the Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy. Several information and communication technology (ICT) conferences are on the agency calendar this year, and State plans to push the issue of Internet freedom especially in settings not yet bound by censorship.
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Countries fall into three basic categories in Internet freedom, said David Gross, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy. Those with policies antithetical to American values must be convinced to change by appealing to self-interest. Another group of nations mostly agree with the U.S. perspective, often working with the U.S. in international settings for Internet freedom. But most countries haven’t even pondered information controls in an Internet context for lack of the infrastructure that such systems require, Gross said.
West Africa is emblematic of the undecideds, Gross said. The Digital Freedom Initiative, a public-private partnership including State, Commerce and USAID, is hosting a conference in the region this summer to which 10 communications ministers and two heads of state are coming, said Ferial Saeed, deputy U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy. “In some respects it’s easy for us to focus on those [countries] that are visible problems, like China,” Gross said. But, while it still can, the U.S. should help undecided governments devise policies that respect freedom of speech online, he added.
The discussion came up in the context of China hosting the 2008 Olympics and whether the country will try to put on a good face by relaxing its restrictive Internet policies. Ed Black, Computer and Communications Industry Association president, asked for Bush Administration help in excising parts of the Global Online Freedom Act, approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee (WID Oct 24 p7). The bill would regulate Internet business dealings with repressive regimes, including sale of routers and other networking equipment. Black said the bill’s “tactics” shouldn’t override its “goal” of promoting Internet freedom.
State should “be more vocal, be more diplomatically active” with repressive countries, especially China as the Olympics near, Black said. The games and their attendant news coverage may persuade China to dial down Internet censorship during the event. Afterwards, the U.S. government will have an opportunity to point out to China that “the world didn’t end” when it relaxed its rules, Black said. But if China keeps a tight grip on the Web during the games, a “very heated discussion” will develop as visitors and media experience that system firsthand. The U.S. has a “unique historical opportunity” to sway China in favor of freedom, Black said.
State most likely will have bilateral talks in June with China that encompass Internet freedom, Gross said. “We have always raised… these very issues” in ICT-related meetings, he said. Gross cited progress at State in elevating Internet freedom, including formation of its Global Internet Freedom Task Force and inclusion of an Internet freedom section for every reviewed country in the agency’s annual human rights report.