Felix Stalder on Sun, 27 Apr 2014 00:22:03 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> #OurNETmundial! Our Internet Needs Mo |
Themes: NETmundial, INTERNET GOVERNANCE, FREEDOMS ONLINE, DILMA ROUSSEFF, NET NEUTRALITY, SURVEILLANCE La Quadrature du Net – For immediate release Permanent link: https://www.laquadrature.net/en/ournetmundial-our-internet-needs-more-than-internet-governance #OurNETmundial! Our Internet Needs More Than “Internet Governance” *** São Paulo, 25 April 2014 — Under the influence by governments and corporations, the final outcome document [1] of the NETmundial forum became a weak, toothless and disappointing text. Despite the Brazilian president's courageous speeches [2], NETmundial illustrates just how farcical and pointless efforts for a “global multistakeholder Internet Governance” are. If anything, the Net should be “governed” by citizens directly, independently of these circles and without waiting for the “global consensus”. Our shared communications infrastructure must be considered a common good, politically defined as such and defended. *** President Dilma Rousseff's courageous speech in favour of freedoms online, Net Neutrality and against mass surveillance had little to no impact on the outcome of NETmundial. The final version of the “Internet governance principles” document is much worse than previous drafts [3]: all mention of non-discrimination of communications (Net Neutrality), even though already very weak, were removed, while passages on respecting copyright were added. At the same time, those portions of the text addressing mass surveillance – the very reason why NETmundial was called! – are laughable, calling for nothing more than “more dialogue” in order to reach “understanding”, failing completely to call for any concrete action. NETmundial has one major positive outcome however: It exposed the “global multistakeholder Internet Governance” for what it is, the absurd circus of ten years of Internet Governance Forum (IGF), of sterile discussions that keep citizens busy, in which corporations and governments have the final word, and from where nothing concrete that defends the general interest ever results. NETmundial's Internet governance farce [4], must serve as a wake up call to citizens who truly wish to end mass surveillance and foster our freedoms online. “We must obtain the protection of our rights and freedoms through a political fight, by creating a global context that will force governments to protect the Internet as a common good, inspired by previous centuries of struggles for human and civil rights. We must demand from governments all around the world that they inspire themselves from the recently adopted Brazilian Marco Civil da Internet: even though it is far from perfect [5], it is a model for how courageous citizens can join with a courageous government to act for the concrete protection of citizen freedoms and the free Internet” concluded Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net. * References * 1. https://www.laquadrature.net/files/NETmundial-Multistakeholder-Document.pdf 2. http://netmundial.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NETMundial-23April2014-Dilma-Rousseff-Opening-Speech-en.pdf 3. https://wikileaks.org/netmundial-outcome/ 4. https://www.laquadrature.net/en/the-internet-governance-farce-and-its-multi-stakeholder-illusion 5. Article 15 of Marco Civil mandates that Internet service providers keep records of their users' connections, an obvious violation of privacy recently condemned by the Court of Justice of the European Union: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/data-retention-eu-court-of-justice-denounces-mandatory-data-retention Its definition of Net Neutrality is also open to further exceptions determined by the network regulator. ** About La Quadrature du Net ** La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that defends the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge. In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the digital age. La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society Institute and Privacy International. List of supporting organisations: https://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-la-quadrature-du-net ** Press contact and press room ** contact@laquadrature.net, +33 (0) 972 294 426 https://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org