Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged governments abroad Tuesday to embrace internet freedom even as the United States moves to tighten online restrictions at home.

“History has shown us that repression often sows the seeds for revolution down the road,” Clinton said in reference to Egypt and Tunisia. ”Those who clamp down on internet freedom may be able to hold back the full impact of their people’s yearnings for a while, but not forever.”

It was the secretary’s second address on net freedoms and comes as social media sites like YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter helped fuel uprisings from Algeria to Syria.

“I urge countries everywhere to join the United States in our bet that an open internet will lead to stronger, more prosperous countries,” she said at George Washington University.

But will the United States join Clinton?

Clinton’s speech came a day after the House voted to extend to December 8 three controversial domestic spy provisions of the Patriot Act. And Customs officials seized 18 more internet domains without giving the pirate website owners a chance to challenge the forfeiture.

What’s more, the Obama administration on Thursday is expected to testify before a House subcommittee about the need to expand the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which already requires telcos and internet access providers to have wiretapping capabilities. The FBI wants Congress to demand that same requirement for encrypted e-mail services like Blackberry, and also wants that for social networks and peer-to-peer messaging networks like Skype.

The secretary, meanwhile, was quick to point out that the United States government’s vocal and legal campaign against WikiLeaks is premised on a “theft” of government material.

“The fact that WikiLeaks used the internet is not the reason we criticized its actions,” Clinton said.

Hours after the speech, the Justice Department was in federal court trying to get Twitter to cough up records related to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and others.

Photo: Associated Press

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