Sun editorial:

Keeping the Web free

Congress considers bill to prevent U.S. Internet companies from helping tyrants

Thursday, July 24, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

Internet giant Yahoo faced withering criticism in Congress last year for handing over the name of a journalist to Chinese officials, who promptly had the man imprisoned.

Members of Congress accused Yahoo of putting profits ahead of human rights and free speech, and they had good cause to do so. In 2004 the Chinese government ordered media not to publish any stories about the 15th anniversary of the deadly Tiananmen Square protest. Shi Tao used his Yahoo e-mail account to forward a copy of the order to a pro-democracy group.

Using Yahoo records, Chinese officials tracked down Shi. He was convicted of passing on “state secrets” and sentenced to 10 years in prison for doing so.

A bill being considered in the House would force American Internet companies to disclose their dealings with repressive governments. It would also ban companies from turning over the names of alleged dissidents.

The Internet offers great freedom, but Web companies trying to expand into other countries often face restrictions. Unfortunately, as Yahoo demonstrated, those companies often also cooperate with government censors in exchange for being able to operate in those countries.

Google, for example, has created a version of its site for use just in China, which blocks sites banned by the Chinese government. China aggressively polices the Internet and, in response, hackers around the world have tried to circumvent China’s controls. A group of companies and programmers called the Global Internet Freedom Consortium even creates free software to combat censorship on the Web.

That is a noble effort, but if Internet companies are colluding with government censors, it is an exceedingly difficult task. American companies shouldn’t be in the business of helping totalitarian regimes violate human rights.

The House bill is a good start at curbing such a despicable practice and it would send a signal not just to corporate America but also to foreign powers that human rights abuses are intolerable.