Clinton: All deserve Internet freedom

January 21, 2010
Source: CNN

In a major speech Thursday on Internet freedoms, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Web censorship

Washington (CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Thursday that the latest information technology -- designed to open access to governments -- can also be used by those governments to "crush dissent and deny human rights."

"In the last year, we've seen a spike in threats to the free flow of information. China, Tunisia and Uzbekistan have stepped up their censorship of the Internet," she said in a speech at The Newseum in Washington.

"In Vietnam, access to popular social networking sites has suddenly disappeared. And last Friday in Egypt, 30 bloggers and activists were detained."

One member of that group, who has since been released, was in the audience, Clinton said.

"So while it is clear that the spread of these technologies is transforming our world, it is still unclear how that transformation will affect the human rights and welfare of much of the world's population," she said.

Clinton's comments came as search-engine giant Google is threatening to shut down its operations in China, five years after agreeing to allow some censorship in exchange for the right to work in that country's massive emerging technology market.

Clinton has said that Google's allegations of censorship and online attacks in China raise "very serious concerns." The State Department has said it will file a formal protest over the complaints.

Also this month, foreign correspondents in at least two China bureaus of news organizations had their Google e-mail accounts attacked, with e-mails forwarded to a mysterious address, according to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China.

Clinton said citizens and businesses must be able to rely on the security of information networks.

"Our ability to bank online, use electronic commerce and safeguard billions of dollars in intellectual property are all at stake if we cannot rely on the security of information networks," she said.

Some governments have "co-opted" the Internet to silence "people of faith," Clinton also said.

"Last year in Saudi Arabia, a man spent months in prison for blogging about Christianity," she said. Countries such as Vietnam and China have used similar tactics to "restrict access to religious information."

Clinton said that in the same way "these technologies must not be used to punish peaceful political speech, they must not be used to persecute or silence religious minorities.

"Prayers will always travel on higher networks. But connection technologies like the Internet and social networking sites should enhance individuals' ability to worship as they see fit, come together with people of their own faith and learn more about the beliefs of others," she said. "We must work to advance the freedom of worship online just as we do in other areas of life."

She outlined what she called the United States' "five key freedoms of the Internet age, which included freedom of speech and worship online, the freedom to connect to the Internet anywhere, freedom from the fear of cyber attacks and "freedom of want" -- saying the Internet can be used to relieve suffering worldwide.