[governance] Egypt and Internet Governance

[Norbert Bollow]

> In message <C96B527E.15C5D%ian.peter at ianpeter.com>, at 17:38:06 on Sun, 
> 30 Jan 2011, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> writes
> >To me the first basic rule in these situations is that companies should be
> >required and should agree to act only on judicial orders, not to political
> >pressure.

I strongly support pushing for a "code of conduct" of some kind
that incorporates this principle.

Roland Perry <roland at internetpolicyagency.com> replied:
> And what if the Judge has no choice but to rubber-stamp a piece of paper 
> where the government is declaring (under laws previously drawn up by 
> politicians) that it's a national emergency?

This kind of situation can only addressed by taking whatever
measures are necessary for ensuring the wide availability of
reasonably inexpensive communication technology of a kind
that is so non-centralized that it cannot practically be
suppressed or censored.

When such technology is readily available for purposes of
political communication, that will greatly decrease the
incentive even for police-state regimes to create "national
emergency" laws for easy internet consorship or even an
internet shut-down like Egypt seems to be attempting.

Greetings,
Norbert
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