[governance] Wikileaks - ISOC

[Michael Gurstein]

Source:  http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=2706

ISOC Monthly Newsletter

The Internet Society on the Wikileaks issue


Recently, we have witnessed the effective disappearance from the Internet of
a website made infamous through international press coverage and political
intrigue.

The Internet Society is founded upon key principles of free expression and
non discrimination that are essential to preserve the openness and utility
of the Internet. We believe that this incident dramatically illustrates that
those principles are currently at risk.

Recognizing the content of the wikileaks.org website is the subject of
concern to a variety of individuals and nations, we nevertheless believe it
must be subject to the same laws and policies of availability as all
Internet sites.  Free expression should not be restricted by governmental or
private controls over computer hardware or software, telecommunications
infrastructure, or other essential components of the Internet.

Resilience and cooperation are built into the Internet as a design
principle. The cooperation among several organizations has ensured that the
impact on the Wikileaks organizational website has not prevented all access
to Wikileaks material.  This further underscores that the removal of a
domain is an ineffective tool to suppress communication, merely serving to
undermine the integrity of the global Internet and its operation.

Unless and until appropriate laws are brought to bear to take the
wikileaks.org domain down legally, technical solutions should be sought to
reestablish its proper presence, and appropriate actions taken to pursue and
prosecute entities (if any) that acted maliciously to take it off the air.

(end)
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