The Center for Democracy & Technology (“CDT”) applauds the

Subcommittee’s leadership in addressing the growing threat of state‑sponsored censorship and surveillance of the Internet, and we appreciate the opportunity to submit this written testimony.

CDT’s core mission is to advocate for public policies, standards and industry practices that keep the Internet open, innovative and free. We believe that an open Internet can be a powerful tool for human rights and democracy. It can facilitate

government accountability and transparency, allowing citizens to pierce through official propaganda and access vast alternative sources of information. The Internet is a uniquely decentralized “end to end” network, which places power in the hands of users rather than with gatekeepers in the middle. It permits anyone with a connection to speak, advocate for political freedom and collaborate with others. It has been 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights first articulated a broad right to freedom of expression regardless of borders.1 The Internet offers a unique promise to fulfill that vision.

Because of its openness and low barriers to entry, the Internet is a uniquely disruptive technology to repressive regimes and its global deployment presents an unprecedented challenge to governments that seek to tightly control the flow of ideas and information within their borders. Trade liberalization and the lure of the global markets have made participation in the global Internet an imperative even for many repressive governments. The challenge as they see it is to harness the

Internet’s power for economic growth while limiting its freedoms.

To read the entire testimony, go to http://cdt.org/testimony/20080520harris.pdf [1]