Facebook, Twitter Inspire Obama Administration to Invest in Digital Dissent

Despite holes in his proposed budget, President Barack Obama is turning the US into a venture capitalist firm.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised to spend $25 million for tools to help tech activists get around “thugs, hackers and censors.”

Think Twitter and Facebook haven't changed the world?

Clinton's State Department has been actively trying to connect with dissenters in the Middle East following uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and now several other countries.

Last week the State Department launched an Arabic only twitterfeed and this past weekend it unveiled its Farsi only feed.

Tuesday's speech at George Washington University was filled with references to the role of Bay social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter played in Egypt.

Ms. Clinton said the US would work with  “technical and policy experts” to develop tools that can get around government sanctions in foreign lands.

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