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"Secretary Clinton has long recognized the power of the Internet and its embodiment of the fundamental democratic principals of our nation," Dowd tells techPresident, echoing a recent push by the State Department to embue digital technologies with political meaning under the banner of 21st Century Statecraft. "She is devoted to growing worldwide public engagement, with State.gov serving as a vital component of this effort."

Either way, the internet, not to mention Twitter feeds, are abuzz with news that President Obama doesn't use the popular social media application after he admitted to a group of Chinese students in Shanghai that he's "too clumsy to type on the phone". The question came about after he was asked by one of the students, "Should we be able to use Twitter freely?" In a country where the internet is heavily censored and online dissent clamped down upon, it was a critical question for the President. "Well, first of all, let me say that I have never used Twitter. My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone," Obama replied. (However, it was widely reported that upon entering the White House, the new President refused to give up his Blackberry much to the chagrin of the Secret Service.)

But because in the United States, information is free, and I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me, I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear."

The capacities of the Internet that are most threatening to authoritarian regimes are not necessarily those pertaining to spreading of censored information but rather its ability to support the formation of a counter-public that is outside the control of the state

Dissent is not just about knowing what you think but about the formation of a public. A public is not just about what you know. Publics form through knowing that other people know what you know–and also knowing that you know what they know.

Thus, social media can be the most threatening part of the Internet to an authoritarian regime through its capacity to create a public(ish) sphere that is integrated into everyday life of millions of people and is outside the direct control of the state partly because it is so widespread and partly because it is not solely focused on politics. How do you censor five million Facebook accounts in real time except to shut them all down?