[governance] Wikileaks - ISOC

[Ian Peter]

I must say, nice to see ISOC standing up on this issue ­ they have not
always historically shown independence from the US Government and this is a
great step and an admirable one. Presumably this also means that
wikileaks.org .(org being run by PIR which is effectively owned by ISOC) ­
will also stand independent of USG pressure - unless there is a legal action
(rather than political pressure) which forces them to take action to
restrict access.

So far we have seen everydns, mastercard, amazon and paypal cave in to
political pressure, although there is no legal action against wikileaks, let
alone a successful one. On the other hand, ISOC (and presumably PIR) and
Facebook of all bedfellows have stood firmly on the side of a free Internet.

I think an IGC statement on this issue would be useful!

Ian Peter



From: Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>
Reply-To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 17:19:09 -0800
To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>
Subject: [governance] Wikileaks - ISOC

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 <http://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 <http://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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