The Obama Administration and high-tech firms have found themselves in a dispute over whether the US government should limit sales of software and hardware that can aid repressive governments in spying on their own people. “We oppose illegitimate government spying,” says Todd Schulte, president of lobbying group FWD.us. “But it’s critical that we first be paid billions to build the technological capability for such spying. Then we will join with human rights activists to oppose the use of the technology. But to ban us from selling it in the first place? That’s unAmerican.” Tech companies point out that some of the same technology that dictators want is used by protestors to organize and communicate, and that a sales ban could hurt the protestors. “We regret having to use these democracy-loving protestors as rhetorical human shields, but this is politics,” said Schulte.