Congressman Crusades To Block Sales of Surveillance and Censorship Gear
to Dictators
By Ryan Gallagher
Slate.com
Posted Friday, Feb. 8, 2013, at 10:42 AM ET
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/08/chris_smith_again_proposes_legislation_to_block_sales_of_surveillance_censorship.html
Authoritarian regimes are willing to pay big bucks for the latest
surveillance and censorship tools. But a congressman from New Jersey is
on a crusade to make sure tyrants can’t get their hands on American spy
gear—no matter how high the price.
Earlier this week, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., introduced the Global
Online Freedom Act of 2013, aimed at curtailing “the growing use of the
Internet as a tool of repression.” Smith has launched versions of the
bill in previous years, but he says the latest incarnation has been
beefed up with new clauses targeting companies who may be involved in
selling dual-use technology that could be used for nefarious purposes if
in the hands of a despot.
According to a statement made by Smith at a congressional hearing
Tuesday, GOFA would, among other things:
Prohibit the export of hardware or software that can be used for
potentially illicit activities such as surveillance, tracking, and
blocking to the governments of Internet-restricting countries.
Require the State Department to improve its reporting on Internet
freedom in the annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices, and to
identify by name Internet-restricting countries.
Require Internet companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges to disclose to
the Securities and Exchange Commission how they conduct their human
rights due diligence, including with regard to the collection and
sharing of personally identifiable information with repressive
countries, and the steps they take to notify users when they remove
content or block access to content.
If Smith’s bill were to be adopted into law, it would have major
ramifications for companies like California-based Blue Coat. As I
reported last month, the Silicon Valley tech firm has been accused of
having provided countries like Bahrain, China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand,
and the United Arab Emirates with network filtering equipment that can
be used for censorship and surveillance of Internet traffic. GOFA may
also impact the secretive, unregulated trade in zero-day exploits,
complex codes that can target vulnerabilities in software programs in
order to infiltrate computers.
The bill has been referred to three House committees—Foreign Affairs,
Ways and Means, and Financial Services—that will now consider whether to
push it forward for review and amendment. Past versions of the bill have
advanced through the committees but have stalled in the final stages,
perhaps because these issues are not seen by lawmakers as a high
priority. Realistically, it’s unlikely that GOFA 2013 will be any
different—but that’s not to say it isn’t a valuable and necessary
contribution. At the very least, it will keep Internet freedom issues on
lawmakers’ radar and put pressure on the government to update its
outdated policies when it comes to controlling the sale of sophisticated
surveillance and censorship technologies.
Smith’s continued efforts to press for Internet freedom-protecting laws
were lauded last year by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which
described an earlier version of GOFA as “an important step toward
protecting human rights and free expression online.” However, EFF also
expressed reservations about that bill, saying it was concerned that
export restrictions might have a counter-productive effect by stopping
activists from obtaining tools that allow them to “monitor their own
communications for security vulnerabilities and backdoors.”
A similar debate over the regulation of dual-use technologies has been
taking place in Europe, where efforts to restrict monitoring and
censorship tools from getting into the wrong hands are well underway.
The European Parliament recently adopted a proposal to upgrade export
regulations to encompass surveillance equipment, a move prompted by a
series of reports revealing links between European spy tech companies
and authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and North Africa.
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George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923
Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927
Political Science Mail: antunes at uh dot edu
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3011
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