State Department: Human Rights Exist in Digital Realm

With the Arab Spring's aftermath being felt around the world, the State Department is continuing to emphasize the importance of Internet freedom, both home and abroad.

Building off Secretary Hillary Clinton's ongoing speeches of the last two years, Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe -- currently serving as the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council -- writes that "human rights and fundamental freedoms are not eroded simply because they are being exercised in the digital realm." To help foster this, Donahoe writes, State and the U.S. Mission in Geneva are combining forces to promote the Internet Freedom Fellows program. Donahoe describes it as an effort to promote human rights via the Internet in the developing world.