US developing activist technology

8 April 2011 Last updated at 10:15 GMT Anti-government campaigners in Egypt use laptops to help their campaign to oust Hosni Mubarak The United States government is spending millions of dollars developing technology to help pro-democracy activists in the Middle East and China.

Washington has begun to open-up about the projects which include a "panic button" that lets protesters wipe their mobile phones if they are arrested.

State department official Michael Posner said that the US was investing money "like venture capitalists".

He also revealed that it was providing campaigners with technology training.

The US has budgeted $50m (£30m) since 2008 for its activist projects, which include developing systems to get round internet-blocking firewalls.

"We are working with a group of technology providers, giving small grants," said Mr Posner, who is assistant secretary of state for human rights and labour.

"We are looking for the most innovative people who are going to tailor their technology and their expertise to the particular community of people we're trying to protect."

Mr Posner described the challenge of keeping ahead of government controls in certain countries as "a sort of cat and mouse game".

Internet shutdown

In what has become an almost standard reaction to growing political dissent, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain have all restricted access to the internet and, in some cases, temporarily shut it off.

Ironically, in some cases, US made technology has been used to help impose those restrictions, according to reports.

While private firms may take a more free market approach, the US government has been keen to leverage social networking to aid campaigners.

In 2009, it asked Twitter to postpone planned maintenance downtime so the site would remain available to Iranians who were protesting against the country's disputed election outcome.

Key-logging technology

Mr Posner also addressed the issue of government eavesdropping, citing the example of a Tunisian activist who had attended a US led training session.

His computer was found to contain key-logging software, designed to record and report everything typed on it.

Around 5,000 activists have received training, funded by the US government, said Mr Posner.

He insisted that the State Department was committed to pressing ahead with such programmes, but conceded that some of the technology could fall into the wrong hands.

He warned that putting tools for evading detection into the public domain might aid drug dealers or terrorists.

"The fact is that Al Qaeda probably has their own way of gathering some of these technologies," he said.

"The goal here is to protect people who are, in a peaceful manner, working for human rights and working to have a more open debate."

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China activist 'beaten by police'

11 February 2011 Last updated at 08:31 GMT Damian Grammaticas: "For five months the blind activist says he has lived under this 24 hour surveillance"

A prominent Chinese activist and his wife are reported to have been beaten following the release of a video showing their house arrest.

Chen Guangcheng and his wife, Yuan Weijin, were badly injured by security officials, according to the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

It says the beating came after the release of a secretly shot film showing Mr Chen as a prisoner in his own home.

He said he has been under surveillance since his release from jail last year.

Mr Chen - one of China's best-known activists - was imprisoned after claiming the authorities had carried out forced abortions.

'Not life threatening'

Chinese Human Rights Defenders told the BBC that a trusted source informed the organisation about the attack.

"The person said the beating was related to the video that was released," said the defenders' spokeswoman Wang Songlian.

"The beating was not light, but not life-threatening either."

She added that the source had said Mr Chen and his wife had not been allowed to get medical treatment.

The BBC could not independently verify the claims made by the organisation.

The film showing Mr Chen under house arrest was released by the US-based campaign group China Aid

In it the activist said: "I've come out of a small jail and entered a bigger one."

His phone has been cut off, and men and vehicles block access to his house. Anyone who tries to help him is threatened, he said.

"I cannot take even half a step out of my house. My wife is not allowed to leave either. Only my mother can go out and buy food to keep us going," said the activist, who used to offer legal advice to local people.

Mr Chen has been held ever since he completed a four-year prison term in September.

He had accused local officials of coercing up to 7,000 women in his province, Shandong, into forced abortions or sterilisations.

He was convicted though of damaging property and disrupting the traffic.

Last month the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton highlighted Mr Chen's case, calling for his release together with the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and another detained lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

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