In January 1997 the Internet was mentioned in a President Clinton’s inaugural address as a commonplace phenomenon. He mentioned it again in the State of the Union Address this past Tuesday, essentially as the product of the U.S. government. This clearly demonstrates that the highest levels of the U.S. government are well aware of the power and benefits of the Internet. But at the same time, the maintains concerns about potential misuses of the medium.

But long before the Internet was a commonplace encyclopedia for millions of school children, it was being used by human rights activist, and most often against actions of repressive governments.

As the Internet becomes more popular and is increasingly used by human rights groups worldwide, a growing percentage of human rights work is taking place in cyberspace. Human rights groups are relying on the Internet more and more to speak out, document, and draw the world’s attention to human rights violations.

As the popularity of the Internet grows, so do the risks posed to those using it. In fact, human rights groups relying on the Internet should not be lulled into a false sense of security, but should apply the same precautions and discretion in sending and accepting information as they did when they depended on the mail system, telephone or fax machine. Electronic misinformation campaigns can be launched whose goal is to discredit individuals and organizations. Messages can be intercepted, the creators of Web sites labeled as subversives or imprisoned (as recently happened in China). Live chatting on the Internet lends itself easily to eavesdropping and the identity and location of the participants can be easily discovered. But, as technology for Internet surveillance and control advances, so must the technology to overcome or bypass it.