Clinton Calls for Global Standards for Internet Use
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for common global standards to guide the use of the Internet, while increasing pressure on countries like Iran, Syria and China to allow the free flow of information in their societies.
Mrs. Clinton made her second major address on the Internet Tuesday and particularly cited the recent leaking of thousands of secret State Department cables by the Web site WikiLeaks as the type of abuses that need to be guarded against. She stressed that nations need to agree on common legal platforms to ensure the Internet isn’t used for theft, espionage and political repression.
But the former first lady hailed the role that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have played in organizing a recent wave of political protests that have targeted dictatorial regimes in the Middle East.
“Finding the proper measure for the Internet is critical because the qualities that make the Internet a force for unprecedented progress—its openness, its level effect, its reach and speed—also enable wrongdoing on an unprecedented scale,” Mrs. Clinton told a gathering at George Washington University.
