There’s a new Global Internet Freedom caucus in Congress.
This is not necessarily a big deal – there are a lot of caucuses. Some are extremely active, and others, not so much. (Congressional Ski and Snowboard Caucus?)
Considering their name, this one will likely be focused on issues raised by the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, a group that got their start aiding Falun Gong practitioners avoid savage oppression from Chinese government. GIF software has been used successfully in China and Iran during recent protests. I met a leader of the group when he spoke at a Congressional briefing I arranged.
The group immediately introduced some legislation to create an Internet Freedom Foundation within the NSF to fund grants and competitions to build anti-censorship tech.
I expect Caucus members to aggressively push laws “encouraging” corporations to do the right thing when providing technology to bad boy regimes.
