US launching Russian Twitter feeds

Almaty. February 16. Kazakhstan Today - U.S. State Department is planning to launch Twitter feeds in Russian, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Just days after launching Twitter feeds in Arabic and Farsi to communicate directly with people in the Middle East, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Tuesday that the State Department would begin sending messages in Chinese, Russian and Hindi, AFP reported.

Clinton, in a speech on Internet freedom at George Washington University here, said the United States is "committed to continuing our conversation with people around the world."

"Last week we launched Twitter feeds in Arabic, and Farsi, adding to the ones we have in French and Spanish," she said, according to a copy of her remarks prepared for delivery.

"We'll start similar ones in Chinese, Russian and Hindi," Clinton said. "This is enabling us to have real-time two-way conversations with people wherever there is a connection that governments do not block."

She acknowledged that the internet has a problem with hateful speech which can inflame hostilities, but said that efforts to curb such content often become an excuse to violate rights to free speech, BBC News reported.

"The best answer to offensive speech is more speech. People can and should speak out against intolerance and hatred," she said.

Mrs Clinton also linked internet freedom with economic prosperity.

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