Obama Wants Sanctions On Those Using Technology In Human Rights Abuses

Much has been said about the role social media has come to play in the global landscape over the last few years. Whether one sees it as the tool of revolutions or not, Facebook, Twitter, and other media played an integral role in organizing the socio-political upheavals in Egypt, Libya, and across the Middle East and North Africa, allowing those oppressed and marginalized by despotic regimes to communicate and organize, and to expose human rights violations. Of course, social and other forms of digital media have just as much potential for ill as they do for use among democracy advocates -- something that has not gone unnoticed in the White House. According to a report from the Washington Post, President Obama today plans to issue an executive order that gives U.S. officials the ability to impose sanctions on foreign bodies that use these "new technologies" to carry out human rights violations.

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