[governance] Egypt and Internet Governance

[Roland Perry]

In message <20110130113619.A00C915C195 at quill.bollow.ch>, at 12:36:19 on 
Sun, 30 Jan 2011, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> writes

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

Who drafts it, who signs up, and who polices it?

>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.

What we've got is a curfew - most administrations have that concept in 
their law for extreme circumstances. And online is just a part of real 
life, and one part where the concept of a curfew has spilled over. I'm 
sure it's inconvenient for many people, but so is staying indoors at 
night, or being excluded from areas during the day.

As a student of law in different countries, you might want to comment 
upon the ease and frequency that the government imposes a curfew, and 
what circumstances they consider extreme enough; but that's a slightly 
different exercise.
-- 
Roland Perry
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