Senator Dick Durbin is calling for information from American tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, IBM, Nokia and Twitter, about their practices in China. AFP reports:
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, also announced plans to hold a hearing in February on global Internet freedom.
He said the hearing would feature testimony from Barack Obama administration officials and from Google and other firms about their business practices in Internet-restricting countries.
“I commend Google for coming to the conclusion that cooperating with the ‘Great Firewall’ of China is inconsistent with their human rights responsibilities,” Durbin said in a statement.
“Google sets a strong example in standing up to the Chinese government’s continued failure to respect the fundamental human rights of free expression and privacy.