U.S. Policy to Address Internet Freedom

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Days after Facebook and Twitter added fuel to a revolt in Egypt, the Obama administration plans to announce a new policy on Internet freedom, designed to help people get around barriers in cyberspace while making it harder for autocratic governments to use the same technology to repress dissent.

The State Department’s policy, a year in the making, has been bogged down by fierce debates over which projects it should support, and even more basically, whether to view the Internet primarily as a weapon to topple repressive regimes or as a tool that autocrats can use to root out and crush dissent.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will lay out the policy in a speech on Tuesday, acknowledged the Internet’s dual role in an address a year ago, and administration officials said she would touch on that theme again, noting how social networks were used by both protesters and governments in the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries.

The State Department plans to finance programs like circumvention services, which enable users to evade Internet firewalls, and training for human rights workers on how to secure their e-mail from surveillance or wipe incriminating data from cellphones if they are detained by the police.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/world/15clinton.html

[hlthe2b]

1. what do you want to bet these services won't work here....

re: "The State Department plans to finance programs like circumvention services, which enable users to evade Internet firewalls, and training for human rights workers on how to secure their e-mail from surveillance or wipe incriminating data from cellphones if they are detained by the police. "

Cynicism or educated guess?

[christx30]

4. Oh they'll work here...

But there will be backdoor parts of the program that will allow them to be shut down at the government's discretion.
This part will be kept quiet, of course.

[msongs]

2. so will he get tough with US corporations who want to stifle the internet? place your bets nt

[Bragi]

3. The same govt that wants to shut down Wikileaks? /nt

[Nihil]

8. Ouch. (n/t)

[Kip Humphrey]

5. Oh the hypocracy!

[Democat]

6. If Obama is for internet freedom, half of DU will find a reason to be against it!

That's been proven over and over again.

[Bragi]

9. But it's s just the left-of-center half /nt

[boppers]

7. Shit like this makes me want to work in DC.

They seriously have no idea about what's going on, or how it works.

It's like a bunch of horse riders arguing about cars.