WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan and Jeanne Shaheen have reintroduced the Informing a Nation with Free, Open, and Reliable Media (INFORM) Act to improve access to independent information and advance freedom of expression for citizens in the People’s Republic of China.
According to a statement by Sullivan the legislation strengthens efforts at the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for Global Media to develop technology to bypass Chinese internet censorship, provide secure content-sharing tools for citizens, and support independent Mandarin language content and journalism.
“One of Xi Jinping’s greatest weaknesses is that he is afraid of his own people,” said Senator Sullivan. “This legislation lays out a way to exploit this weakness and make the most of America’s greatest strategic advantage—our commitment to liberty. The CCP’s vast censorship apparatus—the ‘great firewall’—works to silence free expression and deny their citizens truthful information about the corruption of CCP leaders. Our INFORM Actgets around this firewall and allows the Chinese people to access information about their own government and connect with others across the globe who also yearn for freedom. I look forward to working with Congress and with the Trump administration to make this bill a reality.”
“Chinese citizens are subjected to extreme government censorship and as economic and social conditions deteriorate inside the People’s Republic of China, they’re seeking independent news sources and, increasingly, more freedom from the excessive control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” said Ranking Member Shaheen. “As we work to counter the CCP propaganda and censorship efforts across the globe, it’s critical we also empower the Chinese people to access independent, unbiased information about their own country and the rest of world. Our bipartisan INFORM Act will help to accomplish exactly that.”
Some key provisions of the INFORM Act include requiring the State Department to develop a comprehensive strategy for expanding information and engagement with Chinese citizens in the information space; improving the level of coordination among federal agencies to develop and disseminate timely and compelling Mandarin Chinese-language content that is otherwise blocked by the Chinese government’s highly censored and restrictive internet system; increasing funding for media freedom programming, investigative journalism, and Mandarin Chinese-language content development initiatives.
The full text of the legislation can be found here.
