Obama Against Internet Censorship?

It may appear that the American President shares some common views with the public, responding to a question defending the freedom of information.

In a question regarding the strict internet laws in China against submitting news and posting to Twitter, a student has asked president Barack Obama about whether Twitter should be free to use. Naturally, it would be very hard for the the president to answer this faithfully honestly, due to not wishing to incite any negative reactions from the Chinese government. The student asked him, “Should we be able to use Twitter freely?”, with Obama replying in a vague yet on-the-point manner.

Barack Obama replied simply by saying a vague application to the topic, claiming he ‘doesn’t use Twitter’ – and that his ‘thumbs are too clumsy to enter messages’ on his phone – despite being an avid blackberry user, having far smaller keys than a typical phone. However, pulling together courage, his speech gained more momentum. His full speech is quoted below.

“I should be honest, as president of the United States, 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, because in the United States, information is free, and I have a lot of critics in the United States who 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.”

This was Barack Obama speaking in a way that sort of compared the American government to the Chinese – he could possibly be getting at the fact that the Chinese government have strict policies against information to do with the government, and perhaps he means that he wants to improve things.

Obama’s reassurance towards the Chinese that the US do not wish to control the growing giant have been more important recently, with many events showing his flowing kindness.