(Bloomberg) — The top U.S. senators on the committee that oversees trade urged the Biden administration to fight back against nations including China and Russia after a new report found that their censorship actions hurt internet users and hinder American companies like Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc.
Senators Ron Wyden, a Democrat and chairman of the Finance Committee, and Mike Crapo, the ranking Republican, called on the U.S. to use its trade tools against the nations, as well as Turkey, Vietnam, India and Indonesia. They were identified in a report by the independent U.S. International Trade Commission that the committee requested.
The report, released on Thursday, found that the nations have introduced a wide range of censorship, especially for digital content, that involves restrictions on U.S. firms. Demand in each country is large enough to represent a significant market opportunity for U.S. companies.
The report is the first part of a probe by the ITC. The second, expected in July, will seek to measure the economic impact on businesses. The conclusions could be used as the basis for a probe and action under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 — the statute used by the Trump administration to impose tariffs on more than $300 billion in annual exports from China.
In China, censorship is not only politically motivated, but also used to protect the nation’s domestic firms that support the government’s policies, the report said.
‘Great Firewall’
“It is no accident that the same laws that crush free speech in China also prevent American media and technology firms from competing fairly in the most populous country on earth,” Wyden said in a statement. “The Chinese regime builds its Great Firewall higher every year, suppressing political dissent, protecting the ruling party, and enabling a human-rights disaster. And this repressive model is spreading.”
As of August, about 170 of the top 1,000 global internet and social-media websites were blocked in China, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter as well as news sites such as the New York Times, Bloomberg and Deutsche Welle, according to the report. Search engines such as Google, blogging sites like Tumblr, video-sharing sites including YouTube and e-commerce sites including Amazon.com are inaccessible.
The report stated China’s cybersecurity law has facilitated censorship, noting that Apple has created a China-specific version of its app store. Meanwhile, Russia leads the world in requests for Google taking down content, accounting for more than 60% of all asks from 2016 to 2020, according to the report.
The government’s economic coercion extends beyond China’s borders, the report said, citing how Chinese state-owned TV stations stopped airing American pro basketball games after tweets by a Houston Rockets executive supporting Hong Kong independence.
The senators last year introduced an amendment, added to the China competition bill passed by the chamber, that would require the U.S. Trade Representative to produce an annual report identifying countries that are the biggest offenders for impeding digital trade and censoring critics. The House is now set to debate its own bill, and if it passes resolve their differences through a conference committee.
“U.S. policy must transition to a more active role in pushing back against Chinese censorship and prevent its occurrence in other markets, wherever they may be.” Crapo said.
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