How Congress Might Accidentally Ban US Companies From Doing Business In The US

A couple of years ago, we wrote about a proposal to restrict search engine companies from doing business in foreign countries whose Internet policies the United States government deems “repressive.” In March, we noted that it was back. Jonathan Zittrain has written up an analysis of the latest version. It would supposedly “prevent US companies from aiding the censorship and surveillance operations of repressive foreign governments.” It would target “Internet Restricting Countries,” which are countries that are “directly or indirectly responsible for a systematic pattern of substantial restrictions on Internet freedom.” Now, I understand that the intent is to target truly repressive regimes like China and Cuba, but I have to wonder about how this is being defined. After all, you could argue that the United States’s gambling... [read full story]