U.S. funds tools to help Hong Kong people bypass internet censorship
S. 5562 — Jimmy Lai Internet Freedom Act · Filed by James Lankford (R-OK) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill gives money to the State Department and the Open Technology Fund. They will make and share tools that help people get around internet blocks. China has made it harder for Hong Kong people to see certain websites. The bill would spend $15 million each year until 2031. It tells tech companies to help get these tools to people.
Who it affects
Hong Kong residents would get access to tools that help them see blocked websites. The State Department and the Open Technology Fund would run the programs.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say how the tools will be given out. It does not say who will check they stay safe.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Foreign Relations · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Open Technology Fund — A group that works to help people access the internet freely around the world.
- State Department — The federal agency that handles relations with other countries.
- tools — Software that helps people get around internet blocks and censorship.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (12,479 characters) on Oct 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“U.S. funds tools to help Hong Kong people bypass internet censorship” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5562/simple Report an error
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