The Impact of the Global Online Freedom Act If It Passes

Congress is notorious for avoiding contentious issues when it comes to legislation. One bill working its way through committee could slap major internet companies around in a big way.

The Impact of the Global Online Freedom Act If It Passes

A funny thing has been happening in the online world the last five years and most people don't have a clue it is going on. Many internet businesses are aggressively focusing on the user market in China. While this may sound somewhat bland, it is creating interesting situations whereby internet businesses, particularly the big search engines are doing some very questionable things.

Not to pick on one search engine excessively, but Google likes to claim it does no evil. Well, maybe in the US. In China, however, the story is different. Google provides data access to China law enforcement that are hunting for dissidents and looking to limit free speech on the net. Yahoo and MSN also do the same thing. None of the groups likes to admit to this, but there is no doubt it is going on.

The basic problem for Google, Yahoo and MSN is they want to be "the" search engine in China. Through their subsidiary groups, they want to tap the huge market of potential web users that numbers in the billions. The problem, of course, is they have to do business with a government that is not the least interested in free speech. Faced with this quandary, how do they get around U.S. law since they are based here? They buy or start subsidiaries in China and then put their servers in China. The argument then goes that since the servers are there, China law applies while U.S. law does not.

There is now a bill working its way through committee in Congress. Currently known as the Global Online Freedom Act, it will effectively put a stop to these shenanigans. The bill essentially forces internet businesses to comply with US law regardless of where they put their servers. It will allow internet businesses to comply with requests for data from law enforcement agencies, but only if the legal issue is valid under US law. In practical terms, this means Google, Yahoo and MSN can't help Chinese authorities hunt down anti-communist blogs from dissidents and so on. As you can imagine, this will throw a wrench in the China expansion efforts of the big three.

So, will the bill pass into law in 2007? There is a little hope it will. The issue is receiving almost no media attention, which means there will be just a little lobbying to kill it by various internet businesses that will be impacted. If nothing else, it does signify the beginning of a much bigger debate about regulation of the net. Obviously, the laws of one country differ from another, so which ones will apply? Keep in mind, the US is infamous for forcing other countries to comply with US law enforcement requests in the financial field. Of course, that refers to offshore accounts the US has problems tracking and taxing, so apparently it is okay. Whatever your feelings on all this, it is certainly going to become a bigger issue in the future.

About the Author

Gerard Simington is with FindAnAttorneyForMe.com - an online attorney directory.