No fly zones. Shipping embargoes. Arms for rebels. Covert ops. Military tactics training. We’ve all heard about the usual ways our government helps pro-democracy activists fight for freedom. Now the State Department is working on a tool that relies on the weapon of choice for today’s rebels: the cell phone.
Cell phones have been figuring prominently in the recent events in the Middle East. Activists use them to post Facebook calls for mass protests against ruling dictators and alert their friends and cohorts about insurgency operations. But what happens when those cell phones fall into the hands of the police?
Hit the panic button!
The panic button is one of the new technologies our State Department is promoting to help activists fight back against repressive governments. The panic button would wipe out the cell phone’s address book and send emergency alerts to other activists.
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The panic button falls within the State Department’s technology initiative. Since 2008, the U.S. has budgeted some $50 million to promote new technologies for assisting pro-democracy activists. Among those technologies are strategies to circumvent firewalls that restrict Internet access and to secure text messaging services to protect sensitive data.
U.S. funds are also being used to train activists on new technologies. In a recent training session, Posner noted, experts found activist equipment riddled with viruses and even key-stroke logging software that could communicate information to government agents.
The ultimate goal of the State Department’s technology initiative is to equip pro-democracy activists with the high tech tools they need to wage an effective campaign against repressive governments. Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized the department for not doing enough. But according to Posner, “We’re now going full speed ahead.”