State Dept. Unveils Internet Freedom Task Force

The body will be internal, so industry, non-governmental organizations, academia and advocacy groups won’t have seats at the table. But the group will coordinate with stakeholders and other agencies, State said. Participants include the Bureaus of Economic & Business Affairs; Democracy, Human Rights & Labor; International Organizations; International Information Programs; relevant regional bureaus; and Secy. of State Condoleezza Rice’s policy planning staff.

The group will support existing interagency processes the National Security Council and National Economic Council run, officials said. The group will report to Josette Shiner, undersecy.-business affairs, and Paula Dobriansky, undersecy.-democracy & global affairs. Dobriansky told reporters a U.S. delegation left Mon. for China to meet with officials there on the issue. Deputy Asst. Secy- International Communications & Information Policy David Gross told us the Beijing trip already was scheduled, with Internet freedom one of many items on Asst. Secy Barry Lowenkron’s agenda.

The task force won’t replace or supersede existing mechanisms for gathering input, Gross said. The group will help State officials “better organize ourselves so that we can make sure we know all the tools we have and that we're making active use of all these tools.” Gross said the task force is committed to an open process and is working on the “best mechanisms to reach out in an appropriate fashion and hear what others have to say.” Although the task force will report to top State officials, writing reports isn’t the group’s main charge, Gross said, saying it’s “action- oriented.”

The group’s formation was “a welcomed step,” said House Human Rights Subcommittee Chmn. Smith (R-N.J.), who said it already is included in legislation that he’s preparing to introduce as early as next week. A State Dept. Office of Internet Freedom was proposed in 2005 by then-Rep. Chris Cox (R-Cal.) and was worked into Smith’s new bill. Gross called a task force preferable to a new office because it lets State use existing resources more effectively. State already has an abundance of topic-specific offices, he said.

Rep. Lantos (D-Cal.) hailed State for doing as he’s urged for years. “Internet companies have been caving in to pressure from Beijing in order to further their own financial interests,” he said. State’s support was offered “better late than never,” Lantos said. But the lawmaker still wants an actual office dedicated to fighting online censorship and wants Congress to put $50 million toward that goal.

Smith looks forward to “an honest and straightforward dialogue” at today’s (Wed.) hearing about how Internet firms operate in China, he said. Executives from 4 major U.S. Internet firms working there, State Dept. officials and human rights group representatives are to testify. Yahoo, which will participate in the hearing, lauded State’s action. “This embraces the government-to-government approach that Yahoo has been urging,” a spokeswoman told us.

A Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) spokesman told us CDT is “generally encouraged that the U.S. government is paying attention to this and taking this issue seriously.” The task force announcement ties into what CDT and other high-tech groups have been chanting for some time -- “that there needs to be a concerted effort to discuss this,” he said.

Since the govt. assumes it’s better to engage China than simply withdraw U.S. investments, a conversation is needed on how U.S. businesses can limit the extent to which they yield to pressure in restrictive nations to compromise American principles in Internet offerings, CDT’s spokesman said. Even though outsiders won’t be members, CDT said the task force has value as another helpful component in the larger international conversation, he said.

The task force is a “good start… there’s high level government concern,” Electronic Frontier Foundation Legal Dir. Cindy Cohn said. “This is one area where they really could use expertise from people in the human rights community and the tech community to give them insight into what’s feasible and not feasible for these businesses who are trying to do business in these repressive regimes,” she said. Today’s hearing is also a step in the right direction, but lawmakers need to broaden their censorship-specific focus, she said. EFF has long complained that Google and other search engines collect too much personal data on users absent meaningful data collection and retention laws. They also store those data too long, Cohn said. That poses basic privacy concerns in the U.S. but in countries like China, where govts. can more easily get such data, lives could be at stake, she said. EFF sent a letter to Smith late Tues. asking him to address those concerns at the hearing.