New Policy Laid Out On Internet Freedom

WASHINGTON (KCBS) – In her second major speech on Internet freedom, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has laid out a new U.S. policy meant to help users circumvent filters imposed by oppressive governments.

Tuesday's announcement comes after Internet and social media sites were credited with fueling regime toppling protests in Egypt and Tunisia.

Secretary Clinton has recommitted the United States to helping people in Internet-unfriendly countries to get around the censors.

"Governments that arrest bloggers, pry into the peaceful activities of their citizens and limit their access to the Internet may claim to be seeking security," she said. "But they are taking the wrong path. Those who clamp down on Internet freedom may be able to hold back the full expression of their people's yearnings for awhile, but not forever."

KCBS' Holly Quan Reports:

This comes as the State Department tries to figure out how to handle the potentially damaging WikiLeaks release of classified documents.

Rebecca MacKinnon, a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, which focuses on Internet and human rights, said the Defense Department and Homeland Security may have priorities that conflict with a free and open Internet.

"We promote democracy and human rights and we believe in that, but it's not infrequent that other parts of the government do things that would send a somewhat different message," said MacKinnon.

Clinton said the State Department, after launching Twitter accounts in Arabic and Farsi last week, would soon begin tweeting in Chinese, Hindi and Russian.

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