We need to:
In the past decade, the Internet has been transformed from a U.S.- and western-centric network into a global medium that supports economic growth, the free exchange of ideas and democratic reforms. Internet users -- even in the most repressive countries -- have access to a broad range of information and ideas that challenge government propaganda. Human rights abuses can be documented and shared globally in real time. Bloggers, cyber-dissidents and other citizen media voices online are providing greater scrutiny of government conduct and demanding greater transparency. Human rights campaigns around the world can be organized quickly and inexpensively.
The global Internet's inherent openness and lack of central control is particularly threatening to authoritarian countries and those with weak rule of law and poor human rights records, such as China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam. These countries welcome the Internet's power to fuel economic growth, but they want to harness that power while limiting the personal freedoms that the medium bestows. Many of these countries are aggressively working to remake the Internet into a tool of government control, broadly filtering out unwanted content, censoring blogs, surveiling cyber dissidents and building the capacity to closely monitor online activities. In the last five years, the number of countries engaged in state-sponsored Internet filtering has increased from a handful to two dozen.
In order to promote global Internet freedom, President Obama and Congress should take specific steps, including the following:
