U.S. HYPOCRISY ON INTERNET FREEDOM?
26 June 2009
What's good for the goose is clearly not
suitable for the gander....
Industry observers this week have been surprised by the
apparent hypocrisy of the United States government in
protesting to China about its erosion of Internet
freedom and trade restrictions, when it is itself the
subject of severe criticism for its double standards on
Internet gambling, both in its laws and its activities
at the World Trade Organisation.
The letter of
protest, sent over the signatures of US Trade
Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary
Locke - top officials in the Obama administration - has
been triggered by the compulsory installation of
censoring software on all new PCs distributed in China.
Chinese government officials will decide on what
websites to ban from time to time, giving considerable
leeway for government censorship in any number of
spheres of interest (see previous InfoPowa report).
This week the Wall Street Journal reported that the
letter of protest complains the Chinese action
constitutes censorship, interferes with free speech,
compromises Internet security, and violates World Trade
Organisation regulations.
The business
publication reported that the US letter "...expressed
that the U.S. government is seriously concerned,
including wide-ranging concerns about the scope of the
measure, the censorship implications, trade impact and
security flaws which create serious problems for the IT
industry and Chinese consumers."
US officials
additionally met with China's Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology authorities, the WSJ reports, and
complained that the blocking software would conflict
with what a US Embassy spokesman called "internationally
recognized rights to freedom of expression."
The
irony is that these are all accusations that have with
some justification been levelled at successive US
administrations over their discriminatory laws and
enforcement actions against the online gambling
industry.
The US has been repeatedly accused of
allowing some forms of domestic online gambling - on
horseracing, fantasy sports and state lotteries - whilst
enforcing bans and enforcement action on others; usually
foreign competitors.
The US government was
recently the subject of a European Commission
investigation which found that unfair and discriminatory
enforcement practices were carried out against European
online gambling companies and executives by US
officials, and in the World Trade Organisation the US
has unilaterally abandoned its gambling obligations in
the wake of a successful WTO action against it by
Antigua and Barbuda.
The discriminatory use of
the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to
disrupt financial transactions between American gamblers
and overseas Internet gambling companies has also been
widely condemned.
The impact of US anti-online
gambling legislation on the personal freedom of US
citizens is also the subject of much discussion,
interfering as it does with a personal pastime carried
out in the privacy of the home by adults.
Online Casino News Courtesy of
Infopowa
More news here.
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