Sec. Clinton’s Second Speech on Net Freedoms Stirs Debate

Photo: AFP/Mandel Ngan

For the second time in little over a year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered what was billed as a major address on the future of the Internet.

Her first speech, delivered Jan. 21, 2010 at Washington’s “Newseum“, was a watershed moment. In it, she compared government efforts to restrict or block parts of the Internet to “a new digital Iron curtain“, separating free nations from repressive ones.  Unfettered access to an open web, she argued, would be considered by the Obama Administration as comparable to  a basic human right: limit it, and be guilty of limiting inalienable human freedoms. Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. government is making free speech in cyber space a key part of American foreign policy in a fresh bid to reach out to Internet users around the world.

Experts say the push not only highlights the growing influence of the Internet and its power to pressure even the most tightly controlled governments, but it also seeks to shed light on the link between economic growth and Internet freedoms.

VOA’s William Ide has a complete report here.