[governance] US House Bill to Affirm the Policy of the United States Regarding Internet Governance

[Gene Kimmelman]

Jeremy raises some important points about this proposed legislation
currently before the U.S. Congress. A number of U.S. NGOs have written
letters objecting to the language in the legislation, both for impact on
important aspects of freedom of expression/citizen and consumer protection
under U.S. law, and for misstating the current status of global engagement
in Internet policy and the multistakeholder process.  I believe the groups
will be sharing their views more broadly with this community, and will be
pushing for changes in the legislation as it moves through the review
process before the U.S. Congress.


On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 10:56 PM, Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org> wrote:

> It doesn't seem to have been mentioned here yet (or maybe only in passing)
> that there is a bill on Internet governance being debated in the Energy &
> Commerce Committee of the US House of Representatives at the moment.  There
> will doubtless be stampede of uncritical support for it from politicians of
> all sides (there is no hidden intellectual property "gotcha"), but
> unfortunately its premises are fundamentally flawed.
>
>
> http://energycommerce.house.gov/markup/markup-bill-affirm-policy-united-states-regarding-internet-governance
>
> It only has two sections: one on "Findings" and one on "Policy regarding
> Internet governance", which flows from the findings.  The latter simply
> states:
>
> "It is the policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free
> from government control and to preserve and advance the successful
> multistakeholder model that governs the Internet."
>
> So this is obviously nonsense; it is not US policy to promote a global
> Internet free from government control, only free from the control of other
> governments besides itself.  And note that US policy is only to "preserve
> and advance" not to "enhance" the multistakeholder model, which continues
> the fiction that the multistakeholder institutions that we have now are
> adequate both in their inclusiveness and in the breadth of Internet
> governance topics that they cover.
>
> Of course, you can argue for more beneficial interpretations by defining
> "control" and "multistakeholder model" expansively, but even so this bill
> is just going to entrench the standoff between the US and other countries,
> which is not going to be helpful in reaching compromise on the evolution of
> Internet governance arrangements this year...
>
> --
>
> *Dr Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Policy Officer
> Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers*
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>
> WCRD 2013 – Consumer Justice Now! | Consumer Protection Map:
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>
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