In a speech in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pleaded Tuesday, February 15, for Internet freedom, claiming that countries that censor the Internet may experience a backlash. "The Internet has become the public space of twenty-first century," she explained, saying that the demonstrations in Egypt and Iran, fueled by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube reflected "the power of connection technologies as accelerators of change political, social and economic.
" In his second speech on the subject in one year, Mrs. Clinton emphasized that the U.S. supported the "freedom of expression, assembly and association online," calling on other countries to do likewise. "In his last speech on the Internet, it was mainly coupled to ask the states like China to remove the firewall of censorship", said the specialized site Wired.
In this new speech, Clinton referred in particular to Cuba, Iran, Burma, Syria and Vietnam, among countries that restrict Internet freedom. Clinton also noted that the "first challenge will be to achieve both freedom and security" on the Internet, and again condemned the distribution of thousands of U.S.
diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. But she said the U.S. government played no role in the decision by several companies, like Amazon, MasterCard, PayPal and Visa, to boycott Wikileaks. "Decisions have been taken by private companies on the conduct of their affairs within their own policy towards Wikileaks had not been at the request or upon the suggestion of the Obama administration," Has she insisted.
AMERICAN AMBIGUITIES Clinton has finally announced some measures. A few days after opening of the Twitter accounts in Persian and Arabic to communicate directly with people in the Middle East, the State Department will launch accounts in Chinese, Russian and Hindi. U.S. authorities will also release $ 25 million (18.5 million euros) to support projects or create tools that work in favor of freedom of expression online.
But this speech did not convince all observers, including the association EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), for whom "the speech sounds as if the right hand of government does not know what the left hand." And the association to recall the recent seizure of domain names by U.S. authorities, certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) but also the recent request from U.S.
government to obtain data from Twitter accounts of three people suspected of being linked to Wikileaks. 
" In his second speech on the subject in one year, Mrs. Clinton emphasized that the U.S. supported the "freedom of expression, assembly and association online," calling on other countries to do likewise. "In his last speech on the Internet, it was mainly coupled to ask the states like China to remove the firewall of censorship", said the specialized site Wired.
In this new speech, Clinton referred in particular to Cuba, Iran, Burma, Syria and Vietnam, among countries that restrict Internet freedom. Clinton also noted that the "first challenge will be to achieve both freedom and security" on the Internet, and again condemned the distribution of thousands of U.S.
diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. But she said the U.S. government played no role in the decision by several companies, like Amazon, MasterCard, PayPal and Visa, to boycott Wikileaks. "Decisions have been taken by private companies on the conduct of their affairs within their own policy towards Wikileaks had not been at the request or upon the suggestion of the Obama administration," Has she insisted.
AMERICAN AMBIGUITIES Clinton has finally announced some measures. A few days after opening of the Twitter accounts in Persian and Arabic to communicate directly with people in the Middle East, the State Department will launch accounts in Chinese, Russian and Hindi. U.S. authorities will also release $ 25 million (18.5 million euros) to support projects or create tools that work in favor of freedom of expression online.
But this speech did not convince all observers, including the association EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), for whom "the speech sounds as if the right hand of government does not know what the left hand." And the association to recall the recent seizure of domain names by U.S. authorities, certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) but also the recent request from U.S.
government to obtain data from Twitter accounts of three people suspected of being linked to Wikileaks.
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Vows $25 Million for Internet Freedom Agenda (15/02/2011)
- Hillary Clinton champions Internet freedom, but cautions on WikiLeaks - Christian Science Monitor (16/02/2011)
- Hillary Clinton's speech: Shades of hypocrisy on internet freedom | Analysis: Dan Sabbagh (15/02/2011)
- Clinton: Nations Will 'Pay Price' For Restricting Web (16/02/2011)
- DOWN TIME: Hillary Clinton dishes to Harper's (15/02/2011)
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