YNOT – President Barack Obama spoke to a room full of Chinese university students at a “town hall” style meeting in Shanghai on Monday, and opponents of internet censorship watched as the American president carefully explained views that are clearly at odds with those of a wildly pro-censorship Chinese government.“I’m a big believer in technology, and I’m a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information,” Obama said, after introducing a question on internet censorship. “I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes.”
Obama, standing with a microphone in his hand in the middle of a room of students who showed little visible reaction to his comments, seemed to be choosing his words carefully as he explained some of the positives of an open internet and the free flow of information.
“Citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable, they can begin to think for themselves,” Obama said. “That generates new ideas, it encourages creativity, and so I’ve always been a strong supporter of open internet use. I’m a big supporter of non-censorship. This is part of the tradition of the United States.”
“In the United States, the fact that we have … unrestricted Internet access is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged,” Obama added.
The popular American president was quick to point out that embracing an open internet means accepting it will also be used by one’s opponents.
“There are times where I wish information didn’t flow so freely because then I wouldn’t have to listen to people criticizing me all the time,” President Obama said. “People … when they’re in positions of power, sometimes think, ‘Oh how could that person say that about me,’ or ‘that’s irresponsible.’”
President Obama then said that being forced to hear the voice of one’s opposition is an important component for a healthy democracy, especially for good leadership.
“The truth is, because in the United States information is free, and I have a lot of critics in the United States that can say all kinds of things about me, I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger, and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don’t want to hear.”
He also pointed out that his campaign’s ability to leverage the internet to motivate younger voters is what got him elected in the first place.
“I think the internet has become an even more powerful tool for that kind of citizen participation,” he said.
President Obama then turned to business, an effort to show that an open internet is important not just for democratic governments and effective leadership, but also for commerce. For his example of a success story, he chose an internet company that knows very well the challenges of the Chinese marketplace when it comes to services that offer information.
“You think about a company like Google that only twenty years ago, less than twenty years ago, was the idea of a couple of people not much older than you,” Obama said. “It was a science project. And suddenly because of the internet they were able to create an industry that has revolutionized commerce all around the world. So, if it had not been for the freedom and openness that the internet allows, Google wouldn’t exist. So I’m a big supporter of not restricting internet use, internet access, other information technologies like twitter. The more open we are, the more we can communicate, and it also helps to draw the world together.”
Still, the president didn’t want to seem like he was ignoring the challenges that come with an open internet.
“There’s always a downside to technology,” he admitted, explaining that terrorists and extremists use the internet to organize and recruit. “There’s some price that you pay for openness, there’s no denying that, but I think that the good outweighs the bad so much that it’s better to maintain that openness.”
