Clinton Tells Internet Companies to Take ‘Principled Stand’ Against Censorship

Internet freedom is good for business because it promotes “keeping trust” with customers, Clinton said: A publicly traded Vietnamese company will “always trade at a discount” relative to a U.S. company because investors will have less confidence in the former’s independence under Vietnamese Internet regulation. State isn’t asking companies simply to “claim the moral high ground,” but to act as “responsible stewards of their own information” entrusted to them by customers, she said.

Clinton urged companies to think long term: “They need to consider what’s right, not simply what’s a quick profit.” They must take a “proactive role” in challenging government requests, she said: “American companies need to make a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand.” The U.S. is promoting a tweak on President Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms (freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from want and fear), Clinton said, adding a “freedom to connect” -- the cyberspace version of freedom of assembly.

Clinton continued State’s cautious message to China following Google’s allegations that it and dozens of other companies were targets of sophisticated hacks traced to China. “We look to the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review” of the allegations, and make it “transparent.” Countries with censorship policies “risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century,” she said, and State will discuss its differences with Chinese counterparts “candidly and consistently.” But in a possible allusion to China, she said countries that launch cyber-attacks “should face consequences and condemnation,” and that nations should consider a cyber-attack on one to be an attack on all.

State is “reinvigorating” its Global Internet Freedom Task Force, and working to “put cybersecurity on the world agenda” at the U.N., Clinton said. It’s funding groups that are developing circumvention technology simple enough for ordinary end users to figure out, she said. In the next year it will work with industry, nongovernmental organizations and academics on a “standing effort” to design tools for mobile phones, the primary method for Internet access in the developing world, where there’s a “deficiency in the current market for innovation.” Such applications could let users rate their government ministries, for example, or serve as a “digital doctor” in remote areas -- Microsoft already has such a prototype, she said.

Clinton joked that “government censors are furiously working to erase my words” as she spoke. There are better ways for officials to take on criticism, she said. Answering a Vietnamese questioner who asked how the U.S. would confront Vietnam over its jailing of several bloggers, Clinton said Vietnam is otherwise on the right path, with a higher standard of living: “If you disagree with what a blogger or website is saying, get in there and argue with them.” A blogger jailed in Egypt just last week was present at the Newseum Thursday, Clinton said.

Clinton spoke favorably of the Global Network Initiative, whose industry leaders are Google, Yahoo and Microsoft -- declining to echo a mixed assessment by a senior aide yesterday (WID Jan 21 p1). But questioned by a staffer from Freedom House about the “teeth” of the group’s code of conduct for business abroad, Clinton said State would have a “very vigorous discussion” about what rules companies should be subject to. She compared companies that ignore human rights abroad to food companies in earlier times that ignored “hygiene procedures.” An Association for Competitive Technology staffer asked how long companies could hold out to foreign authorities if, say, their local subsidiary’s staff were getting hauled to jail. Clinton said State speaks out in individual cases and that it has a “foundation of understanding” with China in particular.

One of the more delicate balances Clinton struck was on the role of anonymity online. She mentioned it in the context of terrorist groups using the Internet to “spew hatred” and promote murder. The U.S. also must “grapple” with anonymity in the context of “stolen intellectual property” -- a phrase Clinton didn’t define. Previous hacks against U.S. companies, suspected of coming from foreign countries, often included the exfiltration of sensitive corporate data. But the copyright industries refer to infringement as stolen IP as well. Asked how State can reconcile the danger of anonymity with its usefulness in free expression, Clinton again mentioned IP theft. “None of this will be easy,” but “we should err on the side of openness,” she said, asking for feedback on what exceptions State should make.

Connecting Domestic Issues with Internet Freedom

Clinton’s speech drew a great deal of praise but also attempts to connect her message to domestic issues. “Our moral authority as a world leader … is predicated on the openness of civic communication,” and so net neutrality, Free Press said. “How can we encourage freedom abroad when it has not been defended in our own communications infrastructure?” Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn also mentioned net neutrality and said the U.S. still lacks legal protections for text messaging. President Ed Black of the Computer and Communications Industry Association warned that Internet freedom is endangered by “well-meaning efforts to address undesirable behavior on the Internet.” A spokeswoman told us that included efforts to curb illicit file-sharing or “help local sheriffs catch criminals."

TechAmerica President Phil Bond urged the U.S. to tread carefully in devising new rules. “Open trade arrangements make it possible for our companies to project American values and grow American jobs every day with their presence in markets of various ideological stripes,” he said. “Each company must decide where to do business on behalf of its customers, employees, and investors.” Facebook welcomed the initiative. “Companies like ours have been looking for guidance from the U.S. government and we're glad to hear that this is a priority at the State Department,” a spokesman said.

"We have a duty to maintain and continually renew our commitment to an Internet that is free to all of the world’s citizens,” and the administration’s effort is a “significant step” toward that goal, said Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Congress provided $30 million to expand unmonitored, uncensored access to the Internet in China, Iran and other countries in fiscal 2010, he said. “Google is gutsily taking real risk in standing up for principle” in China, Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Communications Subcommittee blogged at Talking Points Memo. He said he wants to “find ways to press these nations to work cooperatively and openly to establish the basic rules for Internet access that are fair and respectful of individuals."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he will work with other agencies and with business “to advance free communications markets and networks worldwide” in line with the commission’s “rich history of promoting open and competitive telecommunications markets at home and abroad.”