Freedom Going Viral Means Trouble For World's Dictators

More than 2 billion people across the globe have Internet accessand there are some 5 billion mobile-phone subscriptions, accordingto the 2010 Human Rights Report released this month by the U.S.Department of State.

As we saw in Tunisia and Egypt, connective technologies haverevolutionized revolution. Millions of angry and motivated people -many of them very young - are using the virtual public square toexercise their right to follow their conscience, speak freely,publish their opinions, assemble peacefully and petition for redressof grievances.

These five freedoms (protected in our country by the FirstAmendment) are the human rights most needed to advance democracy andjustice - and therefore the most feared and denied by authoritarianregimes.

Of course, tweets and mobile videos alone won't trump tanks andguns in the struggle for freedom. But new technologies make itincreasingly difficult for dictatorships to keep a lid on the demandfor change.

That's why more than 40 governments are "using a combination ofregulatory restrictions, technical controls on access to theInternet, and technologies designed to repress speech and infringeon the personal privacy of those who use these technologies," theState Department said.

Among the worst examples cited in the report is Saudi Arabia,where over the past year the government has monitored e-mail andInternet chat rooms and blocked disfavored websites.

China is identified as another major offender, controllingcontent and access to the Internet - and detaining those who dare todissent from government policies. Re-tweeting a post or operating awebsite where others post comments can lead to arrest for"subverting state power."

In Vietnam, the government arrested 25 dissidents in 2010 andforcibly entered homes to remove personal computers and cell phones.According to the report, the Vietnamese government also organizedattacks against critical websites and spied on dissident bloggers.

Not surprisingly, the report finds that freedom is most oftendenied to the most vulnerable members of society, especially racial,religious and ethnic minorities. In 2010, for example, Christians inPakistan and Uighur Muslims in China were two of the many religiousminorities who suffered severe repression.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people were especially atrisk in many places, including Honduras (an upsurge in killings) andUganda (increased intimidation and harassment).

Despite the bleak outlook for human rights in many countries, thecurrent upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa are stunningreminders that tyrants, no matter how entrenched, are vulnerable tothe organizing power of the Internet.

The report describes the recent growth of human-rightsorganizations throughout the world as "dramatic," despite the harshmeasures taken by many governments to control debate and stifledissent. In the age of Twitter and Facebook, ordinary citizens areable to mobilize for freedom in greater numbers than at any time inhistory.

Repressive regimes keep pushing back. In Belarus, hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators, including seven presidential candidates,were arrested after highly suspect elections in December. "In theweeks that followed," states the report, "the offices and homes ofcivil society representatives, independent journalists, andpolitical activists were raided as part of an effort to stifleindependent political activity and free expression."

Beyond the Middle East and North Africa (where the outlook forfree expression is still in doubt), the report cites severalcountries - Colombia, Indonesia, and Guinea - where conditions forfreedom have actually improved in the past year. The presidents ofboth Colombia and Indonesia (the world's largest Muslim-majoritynation) took steps to improve protections for human rights in theirfragile democracies.

And in Guinea, the first democratically elected president sinceindependence from France in 1958 was inaugurated in December,raising hopes that basic freedoms would finally be won in thatconflict-torn nation.

The Internet, of course, can be used for good or ill. Thecharacter of people using or abusing the Internet determines theoutcome of revolutions - not the technology itself.

As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it in a recent speech,people in Egypt, Iran and elsewhere "stood and marched and chanted,and the authorities tracked and blocked and detained them. TheInternet did not do any of these things. People did."

Nevertheless, Clinton added, the Internet is the town square ofthe 21st century. Keeping it open and free gives advocates forliberty and justice a chance to change the world.

(Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Education Project atthe Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C., 20001.Web: firstamendmentcenter.org. E-mail: chaynes@freedomforum.org.)