TECH NEWS – If the US Senate approves (and then the president signs the law), the country will allocate thirty million dollars (about nine billion forints) to allow Hong Kong to cross the Great Firewall of China.
In short, the Great Chinese Firewall makes websites inaccessible that may contain ideas opposing the Communist Party of China, such as Youtube, a The Google, a The social networking site Facebook And the Twitter Nor is it available without a VPN in the country, which is increasingly controlling Hong Kong as well. Earlier this year, ISPs blocked two pages from accessing after US companies also filed rejected requests for user data from city and state authorities.
For this purpose, the US Innovation and Competition Act was created, which is abbreviated in English (use) from here. If USICA passes legislation, America will provide Hong Kong with $ 30 million from next April (the next business year) to create technologies and software that will allow city-state residents to have open, reliable, and secure access to the Internet.
The USICA cites several points as a goal: Let the Internet be there in Hong Kong; They have more assets in their tech portfolio; These technologies and tools are available there; Then these tools are used by the people who live there; It must begin to be distributed in the country; To a practical extent, but all tools, components, software code, and technology must be open source and preferably developed; Researching the repressive tactics hindering internet freedom in Hong Kong; Want to ensure the availability of security standards and support for persecuted populations, human rights defenders, independent journalists, NGOs and disadvantaged sectors of the population; Finally, they want to maintain Hong Kong’s internet access by contacting US e-commerce companies and social networks. For example, the HK Chronicles website has become unavailable in the country.
$ 9 billion will be provided by the OTF (Open Technology Fund), a non-profit organization that fights international oversight, and the state secretariat. Through USICA, the latter is launching a program on Internet freedom in Hong Kong, which will be sponsored by the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. At the same time, the head of the OTF will launch a program with a similar name, but the two programs will operate independently. In 2022 and 2023, the OTF will receive $ 5 million, while the Secretary of State will receive $ 10-10 million annually. The technologies developed will be examined to ensure that the national security interests of the United States are not compromised.
Source: WCCFTech