The United States should develop a comprehensive strategy to advocate for Internet freedom, as part of its overall foreign policy agenda, according to a study (.pdf) by the Center for a New American Security.

The United States may be reluctant to promote Internet freedom in all cases, sometimes with good reason, but it has other ways to advance its agenda. It may want to prevent private companies from selling tracking technology to repressive regimes. Less controversially, it could use the bully pulpit of congressional hearings to publicize unethical corporate activity overseas, and also could relax export controls for technologies that promote online freedom.

The government can also convince businesses of the economic potential of an open Internet, while telling repressive regimes of the economic benefits squandered by limiting Internet freedom.

For the U.S. government, a policy of Internet freedom could disturb its relationship with China, whose government monitors and censors Internet activity.

Making Internet freedom a policy priority emphasizes how the human rights of the physical world, such as freedom of expression and assembly, extend to the virtual world. A free and open Internet can also provide online resources that foster the tenets of democracy and human rights.

The study insists that the Internet freedom agenda must have international backing. Globally, this agenda is closely associated with the United States, which some people worry has ulterior geopolitical motives. While the study does give credit to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her landmark speeches about Internet freedom, she could help internationalize the mission by giving her next such speech in a foreign country.

For more:
- read the study by the Center for a New American Security (.pdf)

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