Democracy by Internet

Opinion: February 21, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times: After the revolution in Egypt, it has become a truism that the Internet can foster dissent and political freedom. But in a thoughtful speech this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton put that observation in perspective and committed the United States anew to promoting the online exchange of ideas in other countries.

Clinton’s speech was vague in places, and there is a tension between her emphasis on the importance of protecting the privacy of everything from business documents to journalists’ notes and efforts by the U.S. government to combat online security threats. Overall, however, it was an impressive attempt to advance an international conversation about how best to bring a commitment to democracy worldwide into an age in which the Internet is “town square, classroom, marketplace, coffeehouse and nightclub.”

Clinton called for an uncensored Internet, and she criticized countries — including Egypt during the events of the last few weeks — that suppress online communication. But rather than grounding her case for an uncensored Internet only in traditional notions of free expression, Clinton also argued that Web freedom would encourage economic growth.

In case authoritarian regimes are unpersuaded, Clinton noted that the United States has launched Twitter feeds in Arabic and Farsi and “continues to help people in oppressive Internet environments get around filters, stay one step ahead of the censors, the hackers and the thugs who beat them up or imprison them for what they say online.”

In her address, Clinton celebrated the idea of confidentiality, saying it was necessary for the conduct of business and journalism as well as diplomatic communications. But she made it clear that in some instances confidentiality must yield to other values.

That contradiction makes it easy for other nations to accuse the United States of hypocrisy. But it doesn’t undermine Clinton’s primary point that the Internet shouldn’t be censored.