[February 11, 2011] Durbin tells Facebook to protect 'human rights' of users

WASHINGTON, Feb 10, 2011 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Sen. Dick Durbin, who has long pressed technology companies to promote Internet freedoms, today called on Facebook to protect users from authoritarian regimes like the Egyptian government.







Durbin, D-Ill., said in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg that his company should take "immediate and tangible steps" to protect Facebook users who may be tracked and punished as a result of their online organizing.



Durbin praised Facebook as "an important tool to democracy" but added: "As millions of people around the world use Facebook to exercise their freedom of expression, I am concerned that the company does not have adequate safeguards in place to protect human rights and avoid being exploited by repressive governments." He cited reports that Egyptian and Tuisian governments have used Facebook to monitor activists, "which is surely aided by Facebook's refusal to allow activists to use pseudonyms." Durbin noted reports of government officials working to steal Facebook passwords during the recent uprising in Tunisia.





He pointed to a recent New York Times article observing that "a dissident's social networking and Twitter feed is a handy guide to his political views, his career, his personal habits and his network of like-thinking allies, friends and family." Durbin, the Senate's assistant majority leader, has been critical of both Facebook and Twitter for refusing to join the Global Network Initiative, an alliance of companies that prescribes a code of conduct for free speech and privacy related to Internet services.



Facebook declined Durbin's request 18 months ago, saying that "as a young start-up, our resources and influence are limited." A year ago, the company told Durbin that it didn't plan to join the network "unless and until the growth of our international business operations warrants it and we have the staff hours to dedicate to participating properly." In his letter today, Durbin told Zuckerberg that the response "strains credulity... Facebook has over 2,000 employees, hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues and nearly 600 million users; about 70 percent of Facebook's users are outside the United States." A Facebook spokesman did not immediately respond to an email requesting response to Durbin's letter.



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