[governance] Anti-Censorship software from EU for Activists

[Andrea Glorioso]

Dear Philippe,

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 2:44 PM, Philippe Blanchard <
philippe.blanchard at me.com> wrote:

> THanks Imran for the article.
>
> I wonder what the Commission is thinking when they publish such
> information. Are they trying to piggyback on the social media image ? Look
> techno-savvy ?
> It will definitely backfire on the civil society and on human rights
> activists: if censors think that communication technology is not only
> dangerous for their dictatorship BUT also a Trojan Horse of Western
> countries, they will increase their pressure on the existing tools and
> block all communication platforms :-(
>

First of all, you will appreciate it is not the European Commission which
published the information Imran referred to - it comes from an independent
newspapers and the Commission has no power over its editorial choices.

Secondly, no, we are not trying to "piggyback on the social media image".
We are trying to use ICT, including social media, in ways that prove to be
socially beneficial. We are always eager to listen to comments and even
criticisms on whether the way we are doing / planning to do so is helpful
or not; it would be useful, however, if our motives were not always
double-guessed and if people did not always assume we have some hidden goal
behind our actions.

Thirdly, I frankly doubt that censors need the European Commission to tell
them that ICT can be dangerous for their dictatorships (some ICT can
apparently be very beneficial, too..). I think they have understood it by
themselves long ago.

Fourthly and last (but not least) you will appreciate that Neelie Kroes,
notwithstanding the questions that were raised both during the press
conference and afterwards, said very clearly she would not go into the
details of this initiative, exactly because we are not keen on giving an
early warning to authoritarian regimes to clamp down on any particular
group / technology / etc.

I hope this clarifies. I want nonetheless to stress that we are very much
looking forward to ideas on how we can have the maximum long-term positive
impact in this area.

Best,

Andrea
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