The President sent a message to Iran Tuesday that it should learn from the recent events in Eqypt that there is a new generation in the Middle East that will be able to use the Internet and mobile media to organize.
"What has been true in Egypt should be true in Iran, which is that people should be able to express their opinions and their grievances and seek a more responsive government," he said in a press conference Tuesday.
"You can't maintain power through coercion," he said. "At some level, in any society, there has to be consent. And that's particularly true in this new era where people can communicate not just through some centralized government or a state-run TV, but they can get on a smart phone or a Twitter account and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people."
He said the U.S. cannot dictate what happens in Iran, but will lend moral support to "those who are seeking a better life for themselves."
The president has made promoting mobile broadband in this country a pillar of his infrastructure development plan, taking steps in his just-released budget to subsidize 4G broadband to 98% of the population within five years.
