US Senate counters Iran’s curb on information

The U.S. Senate passed a bill late on Thursday to help Iran’s opposition groups defeat curbs of news and internet social networking sites they have used to organize since a disputed presidential vote.

Lawmakers, some of whom have charged the Islamic republic's June 12 election was rigged, approved the legislation late Thursday without dissent amid widespread U.S. criticism of Tehran's crackdown on opposition demonstrators.

Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman and Democratic Senators Ted Kaufman and Robert Casey were the lead authors of the Victims of Iranian Censorship (VOICE) Act.

U.S. lawmakers approved the act to “discourage businesses from aiding efforts to interfere with the ability of the people of Iran to freely access or share information,� according to the legislation’s text found on the Senate’s website.

To achieve this goal, the United States would make efforts to block “the sale of deep packet inspection or other technology to the government of Iran that provides the capability to monitor or block Internet access, and gather information about individuals.�

Congress earmarked $30 million to promote the Farsi language programming and disseminate “accurate and independent information� to the Iranian people through radio, television, Internet, cellular telephone, short message service (SMS) and other means of communications.

Developing proxy servers

The program, to be administered by the U.S. Department of State, aims at developing additional proxy server capability and anti-censorship software to overrun Iranian government’s efforts to block Radio Farda and Persian News Network websites.

It would also develop technologies to counter efforts to block SMS text message exchange over cellular phone networks, according to the legislation text.

"As this cruel regime works to close off Iranian society, the VOICE Act, by providing assistance for broadcasting and new Internet and communications technologies, will help to open it up," said McCain.

"Now is the time to come to the aid of the Iranian people," said Graham. "We must deny the regime the tools they desperately need to continue repressing their own people."

The legislation also calls for a report from President Barack Obama on non-Iranian companies, including those with U.S. operations, that have aided Iranian Internet censorship efforts.

And it calls for five million dollars for the U.S. State Department to gather and make public information about human rights in Iran, including any abuses since the June 12 election.

Lieberman said the legislation's goal was to "help the Iranian people stay one step ahead of their regime, in getting access to information and safely exercising freedom of speech, assembly, and expression online."

Iran's government "infringed on the universal principles of freedom of expression and press," said Kaufman.