The US State Department is once again undermining its own Internet Freedom Initiative - this time by giving the green light to a copyright bill that will adversely affect online free speech around the world.

The Stop Internet Piracy (SOPA) was introduced in the House of Representatives two weeks ago, and while it does very little to stop piracy, it gives corporations unprecedented power to censor almost any site on the internet. And more vitally, it threatens the very sites and human rights activists that the State Department has previously pledged to protect.

In a letter to Rep Howard Bernman, a co-sponsor of the bill, Secretary Hillary Clinton tacitly endorsed the proposed legislation, stating, “There is no contradiction between intellectual property rights protection and enforcement and ensuring freedom of expression on the internet”. Prominent supporters of the bill are now distributing the letter as a sign the State Department is behind their bill.

But what does SOPA actually do? One provision in SOPA allows the Attorney General to cut off sites from the domain name system, virtually disappearing them from the web - the “Internet death penalty” as many have called it. Foreign sites would have to submit to US jurisdiction to contest the Attorney General, a costly and timely process many will not be able to afford even if innocent. Another provision allows corporations to directly force payment processors and advertisers to cut off an alleged infringing websites’ money supply - even if only a portion of the site is infringing. Still another provision gives immunity to companies who voluntarily cut off suspected infringing websites with virtually no oversight.