Clinton: Unrestricted Web access is a right

In response to Google refusal to censor in China, Clinton demands government investigate attacks

In response to Google's recent threat to withdraw from China over security and privacy concerns, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken bold words in the name of unrestricted Internet access today, demanding basic rights for Internet users in a time where governments have become increasingly strict with information:

"Countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of Internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century," Mrs. Clinton said in a speech in Washington. "Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world's networks. They have expunged words, names and phrases from search engine results. They have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in nonviolent political speech."

The countries she is referring to include Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam, which have all made headlines in the last year regarding government restrictions on Internet access.

But mostly she's talking about China.

After Google revealed on Jan. 12 that it had experienced ongoing highly sophisticated China-based attacks on its servers, specifically aimed at Chinese human rights activists, the Mountain View company announced that it now refuses to cooperate with the Chinese government in censoring content on google.cn.

Clinton made a brief statement then, calling on the Chinese government to offer an explanation, but today she remains resolved, asking China to launch an investigation into the attacks. She also chastised restrictive governments and set forth a vision in which Internet users around the world ensure a free Web simply by demanding it and holding other countries to these same standards.

"In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation’s networks can be an attack on all," Clinton said. "By reinforcing that message, we can create norms of behavior among states and encourage respect for the global networked commons." 

Google has already praised Clinton's demands for unrestricted Internet access to be upheld.

"At Google we are great believers in the value to society of unfettered access to information," the company said in a statement today.

The Internet, accessible via so many devices and connected to users globally, is giving restrictive governments all around the world quite a bit of trouble. We saw the first big taste of this back in June with the Iran election: protesters quickly found proxies to get around government blocks on social networking sites, and still managed to organize gatherings.