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Commission to Hold Briefing on New Media

WASHINGTON – After a year in which Twitter and Facebook catalyzed protest movements in Iran and Moldova and authoritarian regimes around the world unleashed new tools of Internet control, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), and Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) will hold a public briefing:

“Twitter against Tyrants: New Media in Authoritarian Regimes”

Thursday, October 22, 2009

2:00 p.m.

1539 Longworth House Office Building

This briefing will consider the ways in which new media and Internet communication technologies affect the balance of power between human rights activists and authoritarian governments. Panelists will focus on new media’s role in protests and elections, the ways in which it empowers civil society activists, and the darker side: how dictators use new technology to control and repress their citizens.

The following panelists are scheduled to speak:

Daniel Calingaert, Deputy Director of Programs, Freedom House
Nathan Freitas, Adjunct Professor, New York University Interactive Telecom Program; developer of groundbreaking technology for protests
Evgeny Morozov, Yahoo! Fellow at Georgetown University’s E.A. Walsh School of Foreign Service; contributing editor, Foreign Policy
• Chris Spence, Chief Technology Officer, National Democratic Institute
• Shiyu Zhou, Deputy Director, Global Internet Freedom Consortium

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