[Infowarrior] - Clinton Speech: Internet Freedom (Text)

[Richard Forno]

Internet Freedom

The prepared text of U.S. of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham  
Clinton's speech, delivered at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

JANUARY 21, 2010

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/21/internet_freedom
Thank you, Alberto for that kind introduction. It's a pleasure to be  
here at the Newseum. This institution is a monument to some of our  
most precious freedoms, and I'm grateful for this opportunity to  
discuss how those freedoms apply to the challenges of the 21st  
century. I'm also delighted to see so many friends and former  
colleagues.

This is an important speech on an important subject. But before I  
begin, I want to speak briefly about Haiti. During the last nine days,  
the people of Haiti and the people of the world have joined together  
to deal with a tragedy of staggering proportions. Our hemisphere has  
seen its share of hardship, but there are few precedents for the  
situation we're facing in Port-au-Prince.  Communication networks have  
played a critical role in our response. In the hours after the quake,  
we worked with partners in the private sector to set up the text  
"HAITI" campaign so that mobile phone users in the United States could  
donate to relief efforts via text message.  That initiative has been a  
showcase for the generosity of the American people and it's raised  
over $25 million for recovery efforts.

Information networks have also played a critical role on the ground.

The technology community has set up interactive maps to help identify  
needs and target resources. And on Monday, a seven-year-old girl and  
two women were pulled from the rubble of a collapsed supermarket by an  
American search and rescue team after they sent a text message calling  
for help. These examples are manifestations of a much broader  
phenomenon.

The spread of information networks is forming a new nervous system for  
our planet. When something happens in Haiti or Hunan the rest of us  
learn about it in real time - from real people. And we can respond in  
real time as well. Americans eager to help in the aftermath of a  
disaster and the girl trapped in that supermarket are connected in  
ways that we weren't a generation ago.  That same principle applies to  
almost all of humanity. As we sit here today, any of you - or any of  
our children - can take out tools we carry with us every day and  
transmit this discussion to billions across the world.

In many respects, information has never been so free. There are more  
ways to spread more ideas to more people than at any moment in  
history. Even in authoritarian countries, information networks are  
helping people discover new facts and making governments more  
accountable.

During his visit to China in November, President Obama held a town  
hall meeting with an online component to highlight the importance of  
the internet. In response to a question that was sent in over the  
internet, he defended the right of people to freely access  
information, and said that the more freely information flows, the  
stronger societies become. He spoke about how access to information  
helps citizens to hold their governments accountable, generates new  
ideas, and encourages creativity. The United States' belief in that  
truth is what brings me here today.

But amid this unprecedented surge in connectivity, we must also  
recognize that these technologies are not an unmitigated blessing.  
These tools are also being exploited to undermine human progress and  
political rights. Just as steel can be used to build hospitals or  
machine guns and nuclear energy can power a city or destroy it, modern  
information networks and the technologies they support can be  
harnessed for good or ill. The same networks that help organize  
movements for freedom also enable al Qaeda to spew hatred and incite  
violence against the innocent. And technologies with the potential to  
open up access to government and promote transparency can also be  
hijacked by 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. 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 this group,  
Bassem Samir - who is thankfully no longer in prison - is with us  
today. 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.

SYNCING PROGRESS WITH PRINCIPLES

On their own, new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for  
freedom and progress. But the United States does. We stand for a  
single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge  
and ideas. And we recognize that the world's information  
infrastructure will become what we and others make of it.

This challenge may be new, but our responsibility to help ensure the  
free exchange of ideas goes back to the birth of our republic. The  
words of the First Amendment to the Constitution are carved in 50 tons  
of Tennessee marble on the front of this building. And every  
generation of Americans has worked to protect the values etched in  
that stone.

Franklin Roosevelt built on these ideas when he delivered his Four  
Freedoms speech in 1941. At the time, Americans faced a cavalcade of  
crises and a crisis of confidence. But the vision of a world in which  
all people enjoyed freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom  
from want, and freedom from fear transcended the trouble of his day.

Years later, one of my heroes, Eleanor Roosevelt, worked to have these  
principles adopted as a cornerstone of the Universal Declaration of  
Human Rights. They have provided a lodestar to every succeeding  
generation - guiding us, galvanizing us, and enabling us to move  
forward in the face of uncertainty.

As technology hurtles forward, we must think back to that legacy. We  
need to synchronize our technological progress with our principles. In  
accepting the Nobel Prize, President Obama spoke about the need to  
build a world in which peace rests on the "inherent rights and dignity  
of every individual." And in my speech on human rights at Georgetown I  
talked about how we must find ways to make human rights a reality.  
Today, we find an urgent need to protect these freedoms on the digital  
frontiers of the 21st century.

There are many other networks in the world - some aid in the movement  
of people or resources; and some facilitate exchanges between  
individuals

with the same work or interests. But the internet is a network that

magnifies the power and potential of all others. And that's why we  
believe it's critical that its users are assured certain basic freedoms.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

First among them is the freedom of expression. This freedom is no  
longer defined solely by whether citizens can go into the town square  
and criticize their government without fear of retribution. Blogs,  
email, social networks, and text messages have opened up new forums  
for exchanging ideas - and created new targets for censorship.

As I speak to you today, government censors are working furiously to  
erase my words from the records of history. But history itself has  
already condemned these tactics. Two months ago, I was in Germany to  
celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The  
leaders gathered at that ceremony paid tribute to the courageous men  
and women on the far side of that barrier who made the case against  
oppression by circulating small pamphlets called samizdat. These  
leaflets questioned the claims and intentions of dictatorships in the  
Eastern Bloc, and many people paid dearly for distributing them. But  
their words helped pierce the concrete and concertina wire of the Iron  
Curtain.

The Berlin Wall symbolized a world divided, and it defined an entire  
era. Today, remnants of that wall sit inside this museum - where they  
belong. And the new iconic infrastructure of our age is the internet.

Instead of division, it stands for connection. But even as networks  
spread to nations around the globe, virtual walls are cropping up in  
place of visible walls.

Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their  
people from accessing portions of the world's networks. They have  
expunged words, names and phrases from search engine results. They  
have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in non-violent  
political speech. These actions contravene the Universal Declaration  
on Human Rights, which tells us that all people have the right "to  
seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and  
regardless of frontiers." With the spread of these restrictive  
practices, a new information curtain is descending across much of the  
world. Beyond this partition, viral videos and blog posts are becoming  
the samizdat of our day.

As in the dictatorships of the past, governments are targeting  
independent thinkers who use these tools. In the demonstrations that  
followed Iran's presidential elections, grainy cell phone footage of a  
young woman's bloody murder provided a digital indictment of the  
government's brutality. We've seen reports that when Iranians living  
overseas posted online criticism of their nation's leaders, their  
family members in Iran were singled out for retribution. And despite  
an intense campaign of government intimidation, brave citizen  
journalists in Iran continue using technology to show the world and  
their fellow citizens what is happening in their country. In speaking  
out on behalf of their own human rights the Iranian people have  
inspired the world.

And their courage is redefining how technology is used to spread truth  
and expose injustice.

All societies recognize that free expression has its limits. We do not  
tolerate those who incite others to violence, such as the agents of al  
Qaeda who are - at this moment - using the internet to promote the  
mass murder of innocent people. And hate speech that targets  
individuals on the basis of their ethnicity, gender, or sexual  
orientation is reprehensible. It is an unfortunate fact that these  
issues are both growing challenges that the international community  
must confront together. We must also grapple with the issue of  
anonymous speech. Those who use the internet to recruit terrorists or  
distribute stolen intellectual property cannot divorce their online  
actions from their real world identities. But these challenges must  
not become an excuse for governments to systematically violate the  
rights and privacy of those who use the internet for peaceful  
political purposes.

FREEDOM OF WORSHIP

The freedom of expression may be the most obvious freedom to face  
challenges with the spread of new technologies, but it is not alone.  
The freedom of worship usually involves the rights of individuals to  
commune - or not commune - with their Creator. And that's one channel  
of communication that does not rely on technology. But the freedom of  
worship also speaks to the universal right to come together with those  
who share your values and vision for humanity. In our history, those  
gatherings often took place in churches, synagogues, temples, and  
mosques. Today, they may also take place on line.

The internet can help bridge divides between people of different faiths.

As the president said in Cairo, "freedom of religion is central to the  
ability of people to live together." And as we look for ways to expand  
dialogue, the internet holds out tremendous promise. We have already  
begun connecting students in the United States with young people in  
Muslim communities around the world to discuss global challenges. And  
we will continue using this tool to foster discussion between  
individuals in different religious communities.

Some nations, however, have co-opted the internet as a tool to target  
and silence people of faith. Last year in Saudi Arabia, a man spent  
months in prison for blogging about Christianity. And a Harvard study  
found that the Saudi government blocked many web pages about Hinduism,  
Judaism, Christianity, and even Islam. Countries including Vietnam and  
China employed similar tactics to restrict access to religious  
information.

Just as 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. We must work to advance the freedom of worship  
online just as we do in other areas of life.

FREEDOM FROM WANT

There are, of course, hundreds of millions of people living without  
the benefits of these technologies. In our world, talent is  
distributed universally, but opportunity is not. And we know from long  
experience that promoting social and economic development in countries  
where people lack access to knowledge, markets, capital, and  
opportunity can be frustrating, and sometimes futile work. In this  
context, the internet can serve as a great equalizer. By providing  
people with access to knowledge and potential markets, networks can  
create opportunity where none exists.

Over the last year, I've seen this first hand. In Kenya, where farmers  
have seen their income grow by as much as 30% since they started using  
mobile banking technology. In Bangladesh, where more than 300,000  
people have signed up to learn English on their mobile phones. And in  
sub-Saharan Africa, where women entrepreneurs use the internet to get  
access to microcredit loans and connect to global markets. These  
examples of progress can be replicated in the lives of the billion  
people at the bottom of the world's economic ladder.  In many cases,

the internet, mobile phones, and other connection technologies can do  
for economic growth what the green revolution did for agriculture. You  
can now generate significant yields from very modest inputs. One World  
Bank study found that in a typical developing country, a 10% increase  
in the penetration rate for mobile phones led to an almost one percent  
annual increase in per capita GDP. To put that in perspective, for  
India, that would translate into almost $10 billion a year.

A connection to global information networks is like an on a ramp to  
modernity. In the early years of these technologies, many believed  
they would divide the world between haves and have-nots. That hasn't  
happened. There are 4 billion cell phones in use today - many are in  
the hands of market vendors, rickshaw drivers, and others who've  
historically lacked access to education and opportunity. Information  
networks have become a great leveler, and we should use them to help  
lift people out of poverty.

FREEDOM FROM FEAR

We have every reason to be hopeful about what people can accomplish  
when they leverage communication networks and connection technologies  
to achieve progress. But some will use global information networks for  
darker purposes. Violent extremists, criminal cartels, sexual  
predators, and authoritarian governments all seek to exploit global  
networks. Just as terrorists have taken advantage of the openness of  
our society to carry out their plots, violent extremists use the  
internet to radicalize and intimidate. As we work to advance these  
freedoms, we must also work against those who use communication  
networks as tools of disruption and fear.

Governments and citizens must have confidence that the networks at the  
core of their national security and economic prosperity are safe and  
resilient. This is about more than petty hackers who deface websites.

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.

Disruptions in these systems demand a coordinated response by  
governments, the private sector, and the international community. We  
need more tools to help law enforcement agencies cooperate across  
jurisdictions when criminal hackers and organized crime syndicates  
attack networks for financial gain. The same is true when social ills  
such as child pornography and the exploitation of trafficked women and  
girls migrate online. We applaud efforts such as the Council on  
Europe's Convention on Cybercrime that facilitate international  
cooperation in prosecuting such offenses.

We have taken steps as a government, and as a Department, to find  
diplomatic solutions to strengthen global cyber security. Over a half- 
dozen different Bureaus have joined together to work on this issue,  
and two years ago we created an office to coordinate foreign policy in  
cyberspace. We have worked to address this challenge at the UN and  
other multilateral forums and put cyber-security on the world's  
agenda. And President Obama has appointed a new national cyberspace  
policy coordinator who will help us work even more closely to ensure  
that our networks stay free, secure, and reliable.

States, terrorists, and those who would act as their proxies must know  
that the United States will protect our networks. Those who disrupt  
the free flow of information in our society, or any other, pose a  
threat to our economy, our government and our civil society. Countries  
or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences  
and international condemnation. In an interconnected world, an attack  
on one nation's networks can be an attack on all. By reinforcing that  
message, we can create norms of behavior among states and encourage  
respect for the global networked commons.

THE FREEDOM TO CONNECT

The final freedom I want to address today flows from the four I've  
already mentioned: the freedom to connect - the idea that governments  
should not prevent people from connecting to the internet, to  
websites, or to each other. The freedom to connect is like the freedom  
of assembly in cyber space. It allows individuals to get online, come  
together, and hopefully cooperate in the name of progress. Once you're  
on the internet, you don't need to be a tycoon or a rock star to have  
a huge impact on society.

The largest public response to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai was  
launched by a 13-year-old boy. He used social networks to organize  
blood drives and a massive interfaith book of condolence. In Colombia,  
an unemployed engineer brought together more than 12 million people in  
190 cities around the world to demonstrate against the FARC terrorist  
movement. The protests were the largest anti-terrorist demonstrations  
in history. In the weeks that followed, the FARC saw more  
demobilizations and desertions than it had during a decade of military  
action. And in Mexico, a single email from a private citizen who was  
fed up with drug-related violence snowballed into huge demonstrations  
in all of the country's 32 states. In Mexico City alone, 150,000  
people took to the streets in protest. The internet can help humanity  
push back against those who promote violence and extremism.

In Iran, Moldova, and many other countries, online organizing has been  
a critical tool for advancing democracy, and enabling citizens to  
protest suspicious election results. Even in established democracies  
like the United States, we've seen the power of these tools to change  
history. Some of you may still remember the 2008 presidential  
election...

The freedom to connect to these technologies can help transform  
societies, but it is also critically important to individuals. I  
recently heard the story of a doctor who had been trying desperately  
to diagnose his daughter's rare medical condition. After consulting  
with two dozen specialists, he still didn't have an answer. He finally  
identified the condition - and a cure - by using an internet search  
engine. That's one of the reasons why unfettered access to search  
engine technology is so important.

APPLYING PRINCIPLES TO POLICY

The principles I've outlined today will guide our approach to the  
issue of internet freedom and the use of these technologies. And I  
want to speak about how we apply them in practice. The United States  
is committed to devoting the diplomatic, economic and technological  
resources necessary to advance these freedoms. We are a nation made up  
of immigrants from every country and interests that span the globe.  
Our foreign policy is premised on the idea that no country stands to  
benefit more when cooperation among peoples and states increases. And  
no country shoulders a heavier burden when conflict drives nations  
apart.

We are well placed to seize the opportunities that come with  
interconnectivity. And as the birthplace for so many of these  
technologies, we have a responsibility to see them used for good. To  
do that, we need to develop our capacity for 21st century statecraft.

Realigning our policies and our priorities won't be easy. But  
adjusting to new technology rarely is. When the telegraph was  
introduced, it was a source of great anxiety for many in the  
diplomatic community, where the prospect of receiving daily  
instructions from Washington was not entirely welcome. But just as our  
diplomats eventually mastered the telegraph, I have supreme confidence  
that the world can harness the potential of these new tools as well.

I'm proud that the State Department is already working in more than 40  
countries to help individuals silenced by oppressive governments. We  
are making this issue a priority in at the United Nations as well, and  
included internet freedom as a component in the first resolution we  
introduced after returning to the UN Human Rights Council.

We are also supporting the development of new tools that enable  
citizens to exercise their right of free expression by circumventing  
politically motivated censorship. We are working globally to make sure  
that those tools get to the people who need them, in local languages,  
and with the training they need to access the internet safely. The  
United States has been assisting in these efforts for some time. Both  
the American people and nations that censor the internet should  
understand that our government is proud to help promote internet  
freedom.

We need to put these tools in the hands of people around the world who  
will use them to advance democracy and human rights, fight climate  
change and epidemics, build global support for President Obama's goal  
of a world without nuclear weapons, and encourage sustainable economic  
development. That's why today I'm announcing that over the next year,  
we will work with partners in industry, academia, and non-governmental  
organizations to establish a standing effort that will harness the  
power of connection technologies and apply them to our diplomatic  
goals. By relying on mobile phones, mapping applications, and other  
new tools, we can empower citizens and leverage our traditional  
diplomacy. We can also address deficiencies in the current market for  
innovation.

Let me give you one example: let's say I want to create a mobile phone  
application that would allow people to rate government ministries on  
their responsiveness, efficiency, and level of corruption. The  
hardware required to make this idea work is already in the hands of  
billions of potential users. And the software involved would be  
relatively inexpensive to develop and deploy. If people took advantage  
of this tool, it would help us target foreign assistance spending,  
improve lives, and encourage foreign investment in countries with  
responsible governments - all good things. However, right now, mobile  
application developers have no financial incentive to pursue that  
project on their own and the State Department lacks a mechanism to  
make it happen. This initiative should help resolve that problem, and  
provide long-term dividends from modest investments in innovation.  
We're going to work with experts to find the best structure for this  
venture, and we'll need the talent and resources of technology  
companies and non-profit organizations in order to get the best  
results. So for those of you in this room, consider yourselves invited.

In the meantime, there are companies, individuals, and institutions  
working on ideas and applications that could advance our diplomatic  
and development objectives. And the State Department will be launching  
an innovation competition to give this work an immediate boost. We'll  
be asking Americans to send us their best ideas for applications and  
technologies that help to break down language barriers, overcome  
illiteracy, and connect people to the services and information they  
need. Microsoft, for example, has already developed a prototype for a  
digital doctor that could help provide medical care in isolated rural  
communities. We want to see more ideas like that. And we'll work with  
the winners of the competition and provide grant to help build their  
ideas to scale.

PRIVATE SECTOR AND FOREIGN GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITY

As we work together with the private sector and foreign governments to  
deploy the tools of 21st century statecraft, we need to remember our  
shared responsibility to safeguard the freedoms I've talked about today.

We feel strongly that principles like information freedom aren't just  
good policy, they're good business for all involved. To use market  
terminology, a publicly-listed company in Tunisia or Vietnam that  
operates in an environment of censorship will always trade at a  
discount relative to an identical firm in a free society. If corporate  
decision makers don't have access to global sources of news and  
information, investors will have less confidence in their decisions.  
Countries that censor news and information must recognize that, from  
an economic standpoint, there is no distinction between censoring  
political speech and commercial speech. If businesses in your nation  
are denied access to either type of information, it will inevitably  
reduce growth.

Increasingly, U.S. companies are making the issue of information  
freedom a greater consideration in their business decisions. I hope  
that their competitors and foreign governments will pay close  
attention to this trend.

The most recent example of Google's review of its business operations  
in China has attracted a great deal of interest. We look to Chinese  
authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber  
intrusions that led Google to make this announcement. We also look for  
that investigation and its results to be transparent. The internet has  
already been a source of tremendous progress in China, and it's great  
that so many people there are now online. But countries that restrict  
free access to information or violate the basic rights of internet  
users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next  
century. The United States and China have different views on this  
issue. And we intend to address those differences candidly and  
consistently.

Ultimately, this issue isn't just about information freedom; it's  
about what kind of world we're going to inhabit. It's about whether we  
live on a planet with one internet, one global community, and a common  
body of knowledge that unites and benefits us all. Or a fragmented  
planet in which access to information and opportunity is dependent on  
where you live and the whims of censors.

Information freedom supports the peace and security that provide a  
foundation for global progress. Historically, asymmetrical access to  
information is one of the leading causes of interstate conflict. When  
we face serious disputes or dangerous incidents, it's critical that  
people on both sides of the problem have access to the same set of  
facts and opinions.

As it stands, Americans can consider information presented by foreign  
governments - we do not block their attempts to communicate with  
people in the United States. But citizens in societies that practice  
censorship lack exposure to outside views. In North Korea, for  
example, the government has tried to completely isolate its citizens  
from outside opinions. This lop-sided access to information increases  
both the likelihood of conflict and the probability that small  
disagreements will escalate. I hope responsible governments with an  
interest in global stability will work to address such imbalances.

For companies, this issue is about more than claiming the moral high  
ground; it comes down to the trust between firms and their customers.  
Consumers everywhere want to have confidence that the internet  
companies they rely on will provide comprehensive search results and  
act as responsible stewards of their information. Firms that earn that  
confidence will prosper in a global marketplace. Those who lose it  
will also lose customers. I hope that refusal to support politically- 
motivated censorship will become a trademark characteristic of  
American technology companies. It should be part of our national  
brand. I'm confident that consumers worldwide will reward firms that  
respect these principles.

We are reinvigorating the Global Internet Freedom Task Force as a  
forum for addressing threats to internet freedom around the world, and  
urging U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in challenging  
foreign governments' demands for censorship and surveillance. The  
private sector has a shared responsibility to help safeguard free  
expression. And when their business dealings threaten to undermine  
this freedom, they need to consider what's right, not simply the  
prospect of quick profits.

We're also encouraged by the work that's being done through the Global  
Network Initiative - a voluntary effort by technology companies who  
are working with non-governmental organization, academic experts, and  
social investment funds to respond to government requests for  
censorship. The Initiative goes beyond mere statements of principle  
and establishes mechanisms to promote real accountability and  
transparency. As part of our commitment to support responsible private  
sector engagement on information freedom, the State Department will be  
convening a high-level meeting next month co-chaired by Under  
Secretaries Robert Hormats and Maria Otero to bring together firms  
that provide network services for talks on internet freedom. We hope  
to work together to address this challenge.

CONCLUSION

Pursuing the freedoms I've talked about today is the right thing to do.

But it's also the smart thing to do. By advancing this agenda, we  
align our principles, our economic goals, and our strategic  
priorities. We need to create a world in which access to networks and  
information brings people closer together, and expands our definition  
of community.

Given the magnitude of the challenges we're facing, we need people  
around the world to pool their knowledge and creativity to help  
rebuild the global economy, protect our environment, defeat violent  
extremism, and build a future in which every human being can realize  
their God-given potential.

Let me close by asking you to remember the little girl who was pulled  
from the rubble on Monday in Port-au-Prince. She is alive, was  
reunited with her family, and will have the opportunity to help  
rebuild her nation because these networks took a voice that was buried  
and spread it to the world. No nation, group, or individual should  
stay buried in the rubble of oppression. We cannot stand by while  
people are separated from our human family by walls of censorship. And  
we cannot be silent about these issues simply because we cannot hear  
their cries. Let us recommit ourselves to this cause. Let us make  
these technologies a force for real progress the world over. And let  
us go forward together to champion these freedoms.