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February 16, 2011

Obama Admin Touts Internet Freedom While Targeting Twitter, WikiLeaks 
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The Obama administration has unveiled a new policy it says will help
protesters worldwide evade curbs to internet freedom. Drawing on the key
role of online organizing in the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. will help bloggers and
activists evade state censorship.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "We believe that governments who
have erected barriers to internet freedom, whether they're technical
filters or censorship regimes or attacks on those who exercise their
rights to expression and assembly online, will eventually find
themselves boxed in. They will face a dictator's dilemma and will have
to choose between letting the walls fall or paying the price to keep
them standing. Governments that arrest bloggers, pry into the peaceful
activities of their citizens, and limit their access to the internet,
may claim to be seeking security. In fact, they may even mean it as they
define it. But they are taking the wrong path."

In an unacknowledged irony, Clinton's comments came just as government
lawyers appeared in a Virginia court to argue their case for cracking
down on the online whistleblower Wiki Leaks. The Justice Department has
subpoenaed the internet company Twitter for personal information from
Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange and four other people linked to Wiki
Leaks, including Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic
parliament. The subpoena asks Twitter for all records and correspondence
relating to their accounts, including apparently private direct messages
sent through Twitter. On Tuesday, lawyers for civil rights groups argued
that the subpoena should be declared unlawful and that its details
should be fully disclosed.



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