Speaking today to officials at the US Embassy in Brasilia, Secretary of State John Kerry delivered comments about the “hardships” facing US diplomacy, saying that a major problem was “this little thing called the Internet.”
Referencing the Internet and “the ability of people everywhere to communicate instantaneously,” Kerry lamented “it makes it much harder to govern, makes it much harder to organize people.”
Though Kerry didn’t single any incidents out specifically in the comments, it is hard to hear this from US officials and not immediately think about the Internet’s role in facilitating whistleblowers like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden.
Information control has been an obsession for the Obama Administration, which has been trying to crack down on leaks and move heavy-handedly to restrict access to classified information even after it has already gone public.
The Internet has been a thorn in the administration’s side in that regard, with efforts to restrict access to WikiLeaks and other whistleblower sites inevitably doomed to failure and an informed public, and all the hardships it brings with it for the ruling class, here to stay.
