Today, Sen. Marco Rubio introduced the Protecting Against Tyrants by Restoring Internet Access and Yielding Vital Interconnectivity in Designated Areas Act – or PATRIA Y VIDA Act. In the words of Sen. Rubio's press release, the bill would "build a strategy to protect internet freedom worldwide and strengthen support for technologies that allow users to evade foreign government-backed censorship and restrictions." The legislation would require the federal government to support and deploy Internet censorship circumvention technologies so that people located in foreign nations Cuba and China that are subject to authoritarian rule can access information. The bill's title commemorates the Cuban peoples' protests from July of this year against their despotic leaders who censored Internet access in that country.
Sen. Rubio surely is right that the PATRIA Y VIDA Act is important legislation. The Senate should promptly take up consideration of the bill, which would direct the U.S. to do more to push back against despotic foreign regimes.
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