By Kevin McCauley
The Internet is the “greatest spying machine the world has ever seen,” according to WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, who addressed students at Cambridge University.
The web is no friend of free speech, human rights and civil life, but “technology that can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime,” according to a report in England’s Guardian, one of the papers selected by Assange to publish his trove of U.S. diplomatic cables.
The Australian did credit the Internet for the ability to focus attention on repressive regimes and link activist groups. It also is used by governments to monitor and track dissidents. As an example, Assange said Egyptian authorities four years ago crushed a Facebook-inspired revolt and then used to site to round-up, interrogate and beat participants.
Assange, who is fighting extradition to Sweden, downplayed the role of social media in fomenting recent revolts in northern Africa and Middle East. In his view, Arab satellite TV network Al Jazeera had a much bigger impact than Facebook and Twitter.
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