"Representative Christopher H Smith, a New Jersey Republican and chairman of a House subcommittee on human rights, plans to hold hearings next month on reports that US Internet companies, including Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp, aid efforts by the government of China to suppress free speech," reports Hiawatha Bray at The Boston Globe.
The international organization Reporters Without Borders last week urged American Internet companies to establish a voluntary code of conduct that would promote resistance to censorship demands from authoritarian governments. If that doesn't work, the organization said, Congress should pass a law to make such anticensorship policies mandatory.
Smith said such a law is probably the only way to stop US firms from cooperating with overseas censorship. He said that no US company should ever comply with China's political censorship policies, even if it means they lose the right to do business in China.
''Call them on their bluff," Smith said. ''We want an amelioration of your behavior, or we will not do business with you."
