Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the openness of America’s best friend, the Internet, at George Washington University on Tuesday, saying that prolonged barriers on the Internet impose moral, political and economic risks.
But in addressing the elephant in the room, she argued that the government’s fight against Wikileaks had nothing to do with Internet freedom. “Fundamentally, the Wikileaks incident began with an act of theft,” she said. “Government documents were stolen, just the same as if they had been smuggled out in a briefcase…. The fact that Wikileaks used the Internet is not the reason we criticized it. Wikileaks does not challenge our commitment to Internet freedom.”
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The Internet has become the public space of the 21st century, she said, and that we all shape and are shaped by what happens within its boundaries.
The goal is not to tell people how to use the Internet, any more than we ought to tell people how to use any public space, whether it’s Tahrir Square or Times Square. The value of these spaces derives from the variety of activities people can pursue in them, from holding a rally to selling their wares to having a private conversation. These spaces provide an open platform and so does the internet. It does not serve any particular agenda, and it never should. But if people around the world are going to come together every day online and have a safe and productive experience, we need a shared vision to guide us.
For the record, the only thing people use Times Square for is to shout at the sky and to get away with indecent exposure; the place makes Guy Debord look like he was almost onto something.
Clinton, last year, calling for a global commitment to Internet freedom.
Meanwhile, Wikileaks guy Julian Assange, who is credited with aiding in overthrowing the regime in Tunisia, and exposing a medley of U.S. government secrets, remains in London fighting extradition to Sweden in connection with allegations of sexual misconduct. Assange’s detainment has impeded his crusade to make classified information available to the public.
Clinton said that g-men had nothing to do with companies’ decisions to block payment or service to Wikileaks. “Any business decisions that private companies may have taken to enforce their own policies regarding Wikileaks was not at the direction or the suggestion of the Obama administration,” Clinton said. Over in Virginia, a federal judge was examining a government attempt to obtain data about the Twitter accounts of people connected with WikiLeaks.
