Agenda for Action

Although social media warfare is in its infancy, many governments around the world have taken aggressive steps to suppress freedoms of speech and press by controlling or monitoring private social media activity. Action steps should include, but not be limited to, the following areas:

• ? The U.S. Department of State should continue to report annually on human rights abuses and keep reporting on the restrictions that governments put on social media and Internet access, if for no other reason. to remind the world that these gross violations continue.
• ? The Department of State should include in its annual report human rights violations that occur within the United States, if for no other reason, to show that the United States is willing to admit to such violations and work toward eliminating those violations, especially those made by law enforcement authorities.
• ? The digital government model of the U.S. federal government should be adopted by governments in other countries.
• ? The United Nations should take stronger actions against those countries that are quashing free speech and press on the Internet and in social media.
• ? Local governments and law enforcement in the United States should be held accountable for any violations of privacy in the way they monitor social media.