{"id":13633,"date":"2011-06-29T18:32:07","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T18:32:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-06-29T18:32:07","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T18:32:07","slug":"double-standards-the-us-on-domestic-vs-global-internet-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/29\/double-standards-the-us-on-domestic-vs-global-internet-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Standards! The U.S. on Domestic vs. Global Internet Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Just this month, the United States signed on to a Human Rights Council statement praising freedom of expression on the Internet, along with forty other countries across the world. The purpose of the statement is to emphasize how integral modern-day communications technologies are for the promotion of basic human rights. &nbsp;You would naturally expect the United States, leader of the free world, to be a signatory &#8212; but can the recent slew of restrictive legislation being pushed through Congress allow the U.S. to support a globally open Internet in good faith?? &nbsp;<strong>Let&rsquo;s take a look at the inconsistencies:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The HRC statement says<\/strong>: &ldquo;We consider Government-initiated closing down of the Internet, or major parts thereof, for purposes of suppressing free speech, to be in violation of freedom of expression. In addition, <em>Governments should not mandate a more restrictive standard for intermediaries than is the case with traditional media regarding freedom of expression or hold intermediaries liable for content that they transmit or disseminate.&rdquo;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Yet, Senate Bill 978 &#8212; the <a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/letter\/ten_strikes\/?source=yz\">&quot;Ten Strikes Bill&quot;<\/a><\/strong> &#8212; would <em>make unlicensed online streaming (by corporations or individual Internet users) a felony punishable by 5 years in prison.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><em><br \/><\/em><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The HRC statement continues<\/strong>: &ldquo;All users, including persons with disabilities, should have greatest possible access to Internet-based content, applications and services, whether or not they are offered free of charge. In this context, network neutrality and openness are important objectives. <em>Cutting off users from access to the Internet is generally not a proportionate sanction.<\/em>&rdquo;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Yet, Senate Bill 968 &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/letter\/pipa_letter\/?source=yz\">the PROTECT IP Act or &quot;Internet Blacklist Bill&quot;<\/a><\/strong> &#8212; would give the government the power to force Internet service providers, search engines, and other &quot;information location tools&quot; to <em>block users&#39; access to sites that have been accused of copyright infringement<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>HRC<\/strong>: &ldquo;For us, one principle is very basic: <em>The same rights that people have offline &#8211; freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek information, freedom of assembly and association, amongst others &#8211; must also be protected online.&rdquo;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>But the Obama administration<\/strong> is facilitating a <a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/sign\/three_strikes\/?source=yz\">&quot;three strikes&quot; style deal<\/a> between Internet Service Providers and intellectual property rights holders to <em>reduce bandwidth and restrict web access to certain sites for users who have been accused of copyright infringement.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <strong>If you can&rsquo;t stand for such hypocrisy on the part of the US government, sign our petitions below:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/letter\/ten_strikes\/?source=yz\">Oppose the &ldquo;Ten Strikes&rdquo; Anti-Streaming Bill <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/letter\/pipa_letter\/?source=yz\">Reject the PROTECT IP Act <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/sign\/three_strikes\/?source=yz\">Fight the &ldquo;Three Strikes&rdquo; Censorship Deal<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> You can read the full text of the HRC statement <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sweden.gov.se\/sb\/d\/14194\/a\/170566\">here<\/a>, as well as the UN report on pro-Internet freedom being praised <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ohchr.org\/english\/bodies\/hrcouncil\/docs\/17session\/A.HRC.17.27_en.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div>Just this month, the United States signed on to a Human Rights Council statement praising freedom of expression on the Internet, along with forty other countries across the world. The purpose of the statement is to emphasize how integral modern-day communications technologies are for the promotion of basic human rights. &nbsp;You would naturally expect the United States, leader of the free world, to be a signatory &#8212; but can the recent slew of restrictive legislation being pushed through Congress allow the U.S. to support a globally open Internet in good faith?? &nbsp;<strong>Let&rsquo;s take a look at the inconsistencies:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The HRC statement says<\/strong>: &ldquo;We consider Government-initiated closing down of the Internet, or major parts thereof, for purposes of suppressing free speech, to be in violation of freedom of expression. In addition, <em>Governments should not mandate a more restrictive standard for intermediaries than is the case with traditional media regarding freedom of expression or hold intermediaries liable for content that they transmit or disseminate.&rdquo;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Yet, Senate Bill 978 &#8212; the <a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/letter\/ten_strikes\/?source=yz\">&quot;Ten Strikes Bill&quot;<\/a><\/strong> &#8212; would <em>make unlicensed online streaming (by corporations or individual Internet users) a felony punishable by 5 years in prison.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><em><br \/><\/em><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The HRC statement continues<\/strong>: &ldquo;All users, including persons with disabilities, should have greatest possible access to Internet-based content, applications and services, whether or not they are offered free of charge. In this context, network neutrality and openness are important objectives. <em>Cutting off users from access to the Internet is generally not a proportionate sanction.<\/em>&rdquo;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Yet, Senate Bill 968 &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/letter\/pipa_letter\/?source=yz\">the PROTECT IP Act or &quot;Internet Blacklist Bill&quot;<\/a><\/strong> &#8212; would give the government the power to force Internet service providers, search engines, and other &quot;information location tools&quot; to <em>block users&#39; access to sites that have been accused of copyright infringement<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>HRC<\/strong>: &ldquo;For us, one principle is very basic: <em>The same rights that people have offline &#8211; freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek information, freedom of assembly and association, amongst others &#8211; must also be protected online.&rdquo;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>But the Obama administration<\/strong> is facilitating a <a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/sign\/three_strikes\/?source=yz\">&quot;three strikes&quot; style deal<\/a> between Internet Service Providers and intellectual property rights holders to <em>reduce bandwidth and restrict web access to certain sites for users who have been accused of copyright infringement.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <strong>If you can&rsquo;t stand for such hypocrisy on the part of the US government, sign our petitions below:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/letter\/ten_strikes\/?source=yz\">Oppose the &ldquo;Ten Strikes&rdquo; Anti-Streaming Bill <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/letter\/pipa_letter\/?source=yz\">Reject the PROTECT IP Act <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/act.demandprogress.org\/sign\/three_strikes\/?source=yz\">Fight the &ldquo;Three Strikes&rdquo; Censorship Deal<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> You can read the full text of the HRC statement <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sweden.gov.se\/sb\/d\/14194\/a\/170566\">here<\/a>, as well as the UN report on pro-Internet freedom being praised <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ohchr.org\/english\/bodies\/hrcouncil\/docs\/17session\/A.HRC.17.27_en.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":5905,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[9983,9984,3480,9985,269,9934,9986,9987],"class_list":["post-13633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-9983","tag-9984","tag-3480","tag-9985","tag-269","tag-9934","tag-9986","tag-9987"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-3xT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}