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

Sat Apr 13 10:26:05 EDT 2013

This, once visibly put into practice, is very welcome news indeed. Many in
the rest of the world were astonished at the capacity of certain elements of
US Civil Society and the Technical Community to offer uncritical support for
what is so evidently self-serving hypocrisy of the form, do as we say not as
we do.

M

From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org
[mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of Gene Kimmonce
elman
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2013 6:55 AM
To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org; Jeremy Malcolm
Subject: Re: [governance] US House Bill to Affirm the Policy of the United
States Regarding Internet Governance

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-stat
es-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
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599 <tel:%2B60%203%207726%201599> 

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