Led by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Obama administration announced this week that it wants to facilitate Internet freedom, especially in situations where authoritarian regimes have tried to cut off its populations from the outside world and repress dissent.

 

In her “Freedom to Connect” address on Tuesday, Clinton noted the importance of social networks during the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The State Department plans to finance circumvention technology programs that, among other things, enable foreign citizens to evade Internet firewalls, and to train human rights workers on how to secure their emails from surveillance or hostile attacks.

 

The new policy has been debated internally for the past year as administration officials decided whether they should treat the Internet as a tool to support uprisings overseas. Part of the debate has focused on changing alliances as well. By aiding the Internet communications of protesters, the Obama administration could be seen as shifting its support away from longtime dictators that have ruled many Arab countries, and instead forging ties with a new generation of would-be leaders.

 

However, human rights activists have criticized the Obama administration for being inconsistent in its pursuit of Internet freedom, particularly in regard to China, where the Communist Party monitors and heavily censors the Internet. In addition, the administration has been slow to award most of the $30 million approved by Congress to pursue circumvention technology.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Text of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Speech (Scribd)

U.S. Policy to Address Internet Freedom (by Mark Landler, New York Times)