OECD Says Countries Must Promote & Protect Global Free Flow Of Info Online; Irony Alert: US Cheers This On

from the no-self-recognition dept

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has put out a pretty strong statement telling members they need to "promote and protect the global free flow of information" online. All of that sounds good, but the real irony comes in the US ambassador's response to this news. She cheers it on:

“It’s really a milestone in terms of making a statement about openness,” said Karen Kornbluh, the U.S. ambassador to the O.E.C.D. “You can’t really get the innovation you need in terms of creating jobs unless we work together to protect the openness of the Internet.”

We agree absolutely with Kornbluh... but feel the need to point out that as she's saying this, the US government has just been exposed for censoring websites with no due process. Meanwhile, Congress is about to move forward with a bill to set up the Great Firewall of America, that will allow the Attorney General to create a blacklist that blocks all access to certain websites.

That seems to go exactly against what Kornbluh says. Basically, she seems to be admitting that SOPA will hinder innovation and hurt job creation by cutting back on the openness of the internet. If only others in the federal government would wake up to the impact of their dreadful plans.

Filed Under: censorship, free speech, internet freedome, oecd, us
Companies: oecd