-------- Mensaje original -------- Asunto: Re: [EDRi-members] Revised G8 letter Fecha: Wed, 18 May 2011 16:16:28 +0200 De: Joe McNamee <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Responder a: [email protected] Para: <[email protected]><[email protected]> LETTER TO THE G8 (DRAFT) Civil Society Statement to the eG8 and G8 INTRODUCTION The signatories of this statement are representatives of civil society from around the world working towards the promotion of internet freedom, digital rights, and open communication. We understand that the French Presidency of the G8 proposes to hold a G8 Internet meeting -- the "eG8 Forum" - immediately before the G8 Summit in Deauville, with a view to preparing for and shape the agenda of the G8 Summit regarding key global Internet policy issues. This meeting is significant in that this is the first year that the Internet’s role in and society and the economy is explicitly on the G8 agenda. We join our voices to the Internet Governance Caucus - their letter is available at:http://www.igcaucus.org/open-letter-president-sarkozy-eg8-meeting-plan - which expresses our collective concern about the lack of representation of civil society at the eG8 and G8 meetings this year. LEADERSHIP/NORM SETTING As key world leaders, your policies have a major influence on internet policy globally. Regrettably, policies being implemented in the most developed economies are undermining the open and neutral internet - the very qualities that represent the essence of its democratic and economic potential. The policies are implemented through surveillance regimes, censorship and removal of ISP liability provisions. Internet blocking and filtering, disconnections of users on the basis of accusations of intellectual property infringements and the implementation of “kill switch” technologies in developed economies all serve to legitimise repression and to threaten the core of the Internet economy. The issues raised in this letter are some of the key Internet governance issues which we feel merit and indeed require the attention of the G8. We also draw your attention to two comprehensive declarations of the principles that we believe should guide nation states in Internet governance. The first document (see attached), was developed under the aegis of the Internet Rights and Principles Coalition, and sets out the 10 Internet Rights and Principles which we believe should inform the development of all policies governing the Internet. The second (attached) document is a declaration of the right of communication specifically to ensure social transformation, written at the recent World Social Forum, which was attended by 70,000 people from around the world in West Africa. We believe that G8 Member States should use the eG8 meeting as an opportunity to publicly commit to defending digital rights, in particular: internet access for all, freedom from censorship and online surveillance, and net neutrality. DEMOCRATIZATION/RECENT EVENTS Recent events in the Middle East and North Africa have highlighted the substantial threats to the Internet, and communication tools more generally including censorship, online surveillance, and efforts to cut off internet access and mobile phone networks to large segments of a nation’s population. Despite the fragile state of the net and the ability of the world’s citizens to make use of it, addressing these threats does not appear to be a high priority at this year’s G8 meetings. We are particularly concerned about nations that would cut off citizens’ access to the Internet in times of crisis, as Egypt, Libya, Iran, China, Nepal, and Burma have all now done. In many if not all of these countries, we see how important access to the Internet is as a gateway to a plethora of others civil, political, and fundamental human rights. Free communications may well be the weak spot of repressive regimes, given their efforts to censor, filter, and monitor communication and information, which is why it is so critical that the leaders of the world, the G8, defend Internet access as a legal right both at home and abroad.(can this be cut out?) As much as the Internet has driven the revolutions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, repressive regimes in this region and elsewhere are similarly harnessing the internet’s power for their own purposes; around the world we are seeing dramatic increases in government censorship and surveillance. China is amidst its worse online crackdown in recent years, the US is unlawfully (?) seizing domain names and proposing a bill to give the President the power to shut off critical parts of the internet, and many countries have sought to suppress access to social media websites and Wikileaks. LACK OF MULTISTAKEHOLDERISM We also would like to highlight our concerns regarding the planning of the e-G8. In particular we note that the organizers have abandoned the principle of multistakeholderism that has sucessfully driven Internet governance to date, and is recognised as practice in this policy area. Instead, the invite list has been limited primarily to representatives of government and corporate leaders, who already enjoy disproportionately large influence over Internet regulation. Indeed, the voices of civil society, of the global south, of the many sections of society, interests, and concerns, are critically missing at this important policy-making juncture. Specifically, we are deeply concerned that corporate interests will dominate your discussions at the e-G8 and G8 summits; issues like strict intellectual property enforcement and increasing online intermediary liability seem likely to take primacy over citizen-centered policies like net neutrality and combating online censorship. As corporations pay $100,000 for seats at the eG8 table, few representatives of civil society are present to advocate for the priorities of citizen-users of the world. CONCLUSION We are at a critical tipping point in the history of the Internet and the struggle for human rights and as the leaders of some of the most powerful nations in the world, we urge you to act now to defend the rights and freedoms of not just your citizens, but people all over the world. Signed mayfirst.orgaccessnow.orgattac.orgvecam.orglaquadrature.net