Sec. 136. Supporting independent media and countering disinformation
510 words·~2 min read·
/bill/117/s/1169/is/section-136·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress makes the following findings: China is increasing its spending on public diplomacy including influence campaigns, advertising, and investments into state-sponsored media publications outside of China. These include, for example, more than $10,000,000,000 in foreign direct investment in communications infrastructure, platforms, and properties, as well as bringing journalists to China for training programs. The PRC, through the Voice of China, the United Front Work Department, and UFWD’s many affiliates and proxies, has obtained unfettered access to radio, television, and digital dissemination platforms in numerous languages targeted at citizens in other regions where China has an interest in promoting public sentiment in support of the Chinese Communist Party and expanding the reach of its misleading narratives and propaganda.
Even in Western countries, China spends extensively on influence operations, such as a $500,000,000 advertising campaign to attract cable viewers in Australia and a more than $20,000,000 campaign to influence United States public opinion via the China Daily newspaper supplement. The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and affiliate Federal and non-Federal entities shall undertake the following actions to support independent journalism, countering disinformation, and breaking the firewall and combatting surveillance in countries where the Chinese Communist Party and other malign actors are promoting disinformation, propaganda, and manipulated media markets:
Radio Free Asia shall expand domestic coverage and digital programming for all RFA China services and other affiliate language broadcasting services. USAGM shall increase funding for Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Cantonese language services. Voice of America shall establish a real-time disinformation tracking tool similar to Polygraph for Russian language propaganda and misinformation. USAGM shall expand existing training and partnership programs that promote journalistic standards, investigative reporting, cybersecurity, and digital analytics to help expose and counter false CCP narratives.
The Open Technology Fund shall continue and expand work to support tools and technology to circumvent censorship and surveillance by the CCP, both inside China as well as abroad where China has exported censorship technology, and increase secure peer to peer connectivity and privacy tools. There is authorized to be appropriated, for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 for the United States Agency for Global Media, $100,000,000 for ongoing and new programs to support local media, build independent media, combat Chinese disinformation inside and outside of China, invest in technology to subvert censorship, and monitor and evaluate these programs.
The Secretary of State, acting through the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and in coordination with the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, shall support and train journalists on investigative techniques necessary to ensure public accountability related to the Belt and Road Initiative, the PRC’s surveillance and digital export of technology, and other influence operations abroad direct or directly supported by the Communist Party or the Chinese government.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor shall continue to support internet freedom programs. There is authorized to be appropriated, for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026, $170,000,000 for ongoing and new programs in support of press freedom, training, and protection of journalists.