The Obama administration will pump $25 million this year into helping cyber dissidents foil Internet repression in autocratic states and plans to broaden the reach of its online mini-appeals for human rights and democracy by creating Twitter feeds that cater to audiences in China, Russia and India.
In a major speech extolling Internet freedom on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said fighting governmental curbs on freedom of expression in cyberspace was not easy. She said, "There is no app for that." But Clinton also said the U.S. is committed to ensuring that the Internet remains an open forum for discourse and that governments that try to restrict the Internet are fighting a losing battle.
She also said the State Department, after launching Twitter accounts in Arabic and Farsi last week, would soon begin tweeting in Chinese, Hindi and Russian.
