Technology helping tyrannical regimes: Julian Assange

Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, says that the internet was the "greatest spying machine the world has ever seen" and an obstacle to free speech. Assange was speaking to students at Cambridge University yesterday. 

The former computer hacker claimed that the internet, particularly social networking sites like Facebook, offer governments greater scope for snooping.

"There was actually a Facebook revolt in Cairo three or four years ago," Assange explained.

"It was very small... After it, Facebook was used to round up all the principal participants and they were then beaten, interrogated and incarcerated. So while the internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing... it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen," he added.

According to the 39-year-old Australian, who is currently contesting extradition to Sweden over alleged sex offences, the rise of technology was helping tyrannical regimes.

"It is not a technology that favours freedom of speech," he claimed. "It is not a technology that favours human rights.