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On 11/06/2013 10:07, Nick Ashton-Hart wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Dear all,
Reading the governance list, I'm struck by how little discussion there
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<pre wrap="">is on how to take the things that you presumably agree on (objection to
overbroad surveillance, etc.) and do something productive with it; it
seems almost all effort is spent trying to score points against factions.
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<pre wrap="">
Is this really the best that this list can do?
Other lists - like Best Bits - are responding with statements and the
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<pre wrap="">like on topical subjects.</pre>
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Sure Nick, we should do a statement too. What about the following.
(The initial draft is submitted for Caucus' consideration.) (Nick,
BTW I took the initial expression 'horror' from your last email on
the subject.)<br>
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(Proposed text below - very rough first draft to get things rolling)<br>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">The Internet Governance Caucus notes
with horror the manner in which the global population is being
subject to such intrusive and intense surveillance by the US
government in complicity with
US based companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook,
PalTalk,
AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. Apart from being against all
tenets of
basic human rights, it exposes the hypocrisy of the claims by
the US
government of a special global legitimacy based on the 'historic
role' vis a vis the governance of the Internet. We are further
troubled that in US government statements on the PRISM related
disclosures, the main defence it seems to take is to say that
they
would never do any such thing to any US citizen. What about the
non
US citizens? And what about the claims of the US government that
they are
responsible to the 'global Internet community', a refrain
frequently
heard from the US government in the global Internet governance
space?
Why the double talk across spaces where technical management of
the
Internet is discussed and where 'harder' issues of privacy,
security
and rights – from political and civil rights to economic and
social
rights - get implicated? </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">We are also extremely disappointed
by
how the US based global companies - Microsoft, Yahoo, Google,
Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple – betrayed the
trust of their global customers in cooperating with the US
government
in such mass scale surveillance. Reports on how Twitter seems to
have
refused to cooperate show the kind of options that may have been
available to these other companies as well. The denials by some
of
these companies about allowing government deep and largely
indiscriminate access to information on their servers seem to
run
contrary to most news reports, which have not been contradicted
by US
authorities on these aspects. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">We wonder if there is a pro quid quo
between the US government and these US based Internet companies
with
global operations, whereby these companies help further US
government's political, military, etc interests worldwide and
the US
government in turn puts its political might in service of
ensuring an
unregulated global space for these Internet businesses? A good
example of this is the insistence by the US government at
the OECD and US-EU trade talks to maintain lowest possible data
privacy
standards, against considerable resistance by EU countries. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">The Internet Governance Caucus
demand
that the Human Rights Council calls for a special report and a
special session on this issue. It should also proceed to examine
ways
to develop globally-applicable norms and principles on digital
privacy and basic structures of legal frameworks and due process
that
ensures people's rights in online spaces – both civil and
political
rights as well as social and economic rights. </p>
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<blockquote cite="mid:51B6E70A.60004@apc.org" type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> Would you rather score points against one
another, or score points for the public interest?
- --
- ------------------------------------------------------
anriette esterhuysen <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:anriette@apc.org">anriette@apc.org</a>
executive director, association for progressive communications
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.apc.org">www.apc.org</a>
po box 29755, melville 2109
south africa
tel/fax +27 11 726 1692
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