"Another piece of good news is the State Department's reluctance to take a stand in the brewing debate of whether the Internet is a tool for liberation or oppression (Clinton characterized this debate as “largely beside the point”). Clearly, it's a tool for both; the degree to which it's liberating or oppressing often depends on the political and social context – and not on the individual characteristics of a given Internet technology. It's reassuring to see Clinton strike a reasonable balance between cyber-utopianism and cyber-pessimism; adopting a cyber-realist posture and treating the Internet as it is (and not how we would like it to be) is the right way forward."