Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged countries around the world to support the U.S. in promoting open access to the Internet during a speech Tuesday at the George Washington University.
Secretary Clinton’s announcement came just days after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in the face of anti-government protests, which were partially organized on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
“Those who clamp down on Internet freedom may be able to hold back the full impact of their people’s yearnings for a while, but not forever,” Secretary Clinton said to a packed audience in the Jack Morton Auditorium. “We are convinced that an open Internet fosters long-term peace, progress and prosperity.”
During the uprising in Egypt, the Internet was shut down for five days, and Secretary Clinton urged the government to unblock social networking sites. She has also criticized Iran, Cuba, Vietnam and China for censoring online information.
Secretary Clinton argued that what happened in Egypt and what’s happening now in Iran was not caused by the Internet but rather by deep frustrations surrounding the public’s political and economic positions.
“They stood and marched and chanted, and the authorities tracked and blocked and arrested them. The Internet did not do any of those things. People did,” she said. “In both of these countries the ways that citizens and authorities used the Internet reflected the power of connection technologies on the one hand as an accelerant of political, social and economic change and on the other hand as a means to stifle or extinguish that change.”
During his welcoming remarks, President Steven Knapp said GW was honored to have the U.S. Department of State as a neighbor and welcomed Secretary Clinton back to campus. In 1994, Secretary Clinton received an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree from GW and served as the Commencement keynote speaker. Most recently she appeared on campus with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in a 2009 foreign policy roundtable.
“Secretary Clinton's speech highlighted every thing that makes GW unique among nationally ranked universities. In a major statement of emerging foreign policy, she addressed the evolving nexus of technology and democracy on a global scale and married that to traditional American political values,” said Chris Arterton, professor of political management in GW’s Graduate School of Political Management. “All of these topics are daily concerns in our classrooms, research, corridor conversations and thought leadership. GW at its most engaged.”
Secretary Clinton vowed to invest $25 million this year in counter-censorship technology to protect Internet freedom across the globe. She also announced a new office for cyber issues within the State Department. By the end of the year, the Obama administration will complete an international strategy for cyberspace, adding that ensuring an open Internet is a U.S. foreign policy priority.
“When countries curtail Internet freedom, they place limits on their economic future. Their young people don’t have full access to the conversation and debates happening in the world or exposure to the kind of free inquiry that spurs people to question old ways of doing and invent new ones,” she said.
Secretary Clinton said the Internet has become the public space of the 21st century with two billion people connected today.
“The rights of individuals to express their views freely, petition their leaders, worship according to their beliefs…these rights are universal whether they are exercised in a public square or on an individual blog,” she said. “The freedoms to assemble and associate also apply in cyberspace. The U.S. supports this freedom to connect for people everywhere.”
Last week, the State Department launched Twitter feeds in Arabic and Farsi to communicate with people in the Middle East, and on Wednesday Secretary Clinton announced the department’s plan to launch additional feeds in Chinese, Russian and Hindi soon.
Secretary Clinton recognized that there are challenges with having an open Internet. Terrorists use the web to recruit members and carry out attacks. Child pornographers use the web to exploit children, and hackers break into financial institutions and personal email accounts. That’s why a balance between liberty and security must be reached, she said.
“The choices we make today will determine what the Internet looks like in the future,” Secretary Clinton said. “Businesses have to choose whether and how to enter markets where internet freedom is limited. People have to choose how to act online, what information to share and with whom, which ideas to voice and how to voice them. Governments have to choose to live up to their commitments to protect free expression, assembly and association.”