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ERIC SCHMIDT: I think we're all here because we all
believe in the importance of free speech and free
expression online and everywhere.
We are joined today by foreign ministers from many places in
the world, very distinguished ambassadors here
in the front row.
And we're joined in a spirit to fight people who want to
shut down free speech.
It makes easy sense for a government to say we don't
like that, we're going to curtail that, we're going to
shut it down, we're going to censor it.
But we believe, and we organized this conference with
the Dutch government with your help, to make a point that
this is not right, that the world is a better place with
the kind of principles that you're going to hear and we're
going to talk about for the next hour or so.
URI ROSENTHAL: For centuries, freedom of speech has been the
driver of democracy and the fight to [? assert ?]
it continues.
In the last decade, however, it has taken on an extra
dimension, that of freedom online.
Freedom of speech online is surely as crucial today as
freedom of speech offline.
And it directly derives from Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
The new factor, though, is novel technology and indeed a
much faster pace.
Internet indeed compresses time and space.
It is with us immediately and it is immediately with us from
all over the globe.
On the other hand, online technology can make life
difficult for those exercising censorship.
We should not make their life easier by providing them with
filter technology.
And here, I do strongly believe--
with, for instance, Google--
in corporate social responsibility.
I strongly believe in codes of conduct, such as the Global
Network Initiative, the Internet Rights and Principles
Coalition, and not to forget the Silicon Valley Standard.
Several IT companies have search engines.
And apart from Google, for instance, Yahoo has already
taken excellent initiatives.
And then, for example, Google and Twitter, which quite
concretely during the uprising helped Egyptians tell the
world what was going on by converting voicemail into
tweets, a very enabling device.
Over the next four years, 5 million euros from our Human
Rights Fund will go towards projects promoting internet
freedom, and targeted countries include, for
instance, Zimbabwe, Syria, and Iran.
To conclude, the internet is a public space par excellence.
And we should honor it, and we should protect it.
Thank you so much.
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, it's a pleasure to join you here
today to discuss this issue because we think it is vitally
important to every nation represented and every nation
in the world, namely internet freedom.
And I want to thank Uri and the Netherlands for hosting
this conference, which is a reflection of your long
tradition of defending and advancing people's human
rights and fundamental freedoms
everywhere, including online.
This is an urgent task.
It is most urgent, of course, for those around the world
whose words are now censored, who are in prison because of
what they or others have written online, who are
blocked from accessing entire categories of internet
content, or who are being tracked by governments seeking
to keep them from connecting with one another.
In Syria, a blogger named Anas Maarawi was arrested on July 1
after demanding that President Asad leave. He's not been
charged with anything, but he remains in detention.
What we do today to preserve fundamental freedoms online
will have a profound effect on the next generation of users.
More than 2 billion people are now connected to the internet,
but in the next 20 years that number will more than double.
And we are quickly approaching the day when more than a
billion people are using the internet
in repressive countries.
The pledges we make and the actions we take today can help
us determine whether that number grows or shrinks, or
whether the meaning of being on the
internet is totally distorted.
The challenge of maintaining security and of combating
cyber crime, such as the theft of intellectual property, are
real, a point I underscore whenever I
discuss these issues.
There are predators, terrorists, traffickers on the
internet, malign actors plotting cyber attacks, and
they all need to be stopped.
We can do that by working together without compromising
the global network, its dynamism, or our principles.
The Committee to Protect Journalists recently reported
that of all the writers, editors, and photojournalist
now imprisoned around the world, nearly half are online
journalists.
The threat is very real.
Now several of us already provide support, including
financial support, to activists and bloggers.
And I was pleased that the EU recently announced new funding
for that purpose.
And I know that other governments, including the
Netherlands, are also looking for ways to help out.
By coordinating our efforts, we can make them go further
and help more people.
Our government will continue to work very hard to get
around every barrier that repressive governments put up.
Because governments that have erected barriers will
eventually find themselves boxed in.
And they will face the dictator's dilemma.
They will have to choose between letting the walls fall
or paying the price for keeping them standing by
resorting to greater oppression and to escalating
the opportunity cost of missing out on the ideas that
have been blocked and the people who have been
disappeared.
I urge countries everywhere, instead of that alternative
dark vision join us here today in the bet that we are making,
a bet that an open internet will lead to stronger, more
prosperous countries.
We will preserve the internet as open and secure for all.
On the eve of Human Rights Day, this meeting reminds us
of the timeless principles that should be our North Star.
And a look at the world around us and the way it is changing
reminds us there is no autopilot steering us forward.
We have to work in good faith and engage in honest debate,
and we have to join together to solve the challenges and
seize the opportunities of this exciting digital age.
Thank you all for being committed to that goal and
that vision.
The United States pledges our support and our partnership
going forward.
Thank you all very much.
Thank you.
URI ROSENTHAL: You're probably, of all the European
leaders I know, you are the most active in terms of
blogger, Twitter, online reputation.
I don't know why this is.
And I actually follow you.
So go ahead and talk a little bit about why this is
important to you.
CARL BILDT: Well, the reason is, probably, because Sweden
has been a country in the forefront of this revolution,
be that internet, be that
telecommunications, or be that mobility.
And accordingly, we have confronted some of the
difficult issues fairly early.
We've seen all of the positive effects of it but also some of
the issues that have being alluded to here, cyber
security and others.
Let me just say one word about that, because this is a
conference devoted to net freedom.
That's a good thing.
But if you take the relationship in the world
today, the [UNINTELLIGIBLE] conferences on net freedom and
on cyber security.
It's roughly one to 10.
And I'm not against cyber security.
Neither are you, for obvious commercial, as well as--
ERIC SCHMIDT: It's clearly important.
It's important to have.
CARL BILDT: Extremely important.
But what I'm somewhat concerned with is that we
separate the two, that we develop a community for cyber
security and a community for internet freedom.
And then we've got two civilizations going off in
different directions.
LEON WILLEMS: The hundreds of journalists and human rights
activists that are incarcerated, tortured, cyber
dissidents silenced, and killed in countries that do
not reach the public domain at the moment.
I speak about countries like Russia, Eritrea, Uzbekistan,
Azerbaijan.
In these countries, public dissent has totally
disappeared from view and democracy
becomes a sorry excuse.
So I am sometimes afraid that with the proliferation of all
this technology, in fact the internet could become a very
effective way for the enemies of freedom of expression and
freedom of the press to attack dissident voices.
And we need to stop this.