EDRI - Governance

FBI was controlling servers located in France

bogdan — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 18:20:40 +0000

The FBI admitted on 12 September 2013 that, in late July, it had secretly taken control of some servers located in France in order to plant a malware within a police action.

The agency has introduced the spyware on web pages hosted by Freedom Hosting, meant for Tor anonymization network.

WCIT: what happened and what it means for the Internet

bogdan — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:49:58 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: WCIT: Was passiert ist und was es für das Internet bedeutet

After two weeks of intensive negotiations, the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) adopted the revised International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), a controversial treaty, which has been viewed by many as an attempt by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Member States to take over the Internet.

The conference has been hailed as a success by the ITU with 89 Member States signing the treaty.

ENDitorial: The ETNO's WCIT proposals are not as bad as some say

bogdan — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:26:29 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: ENDitorial: Der WCIT-Vorschlag der ETNO ist nicht so schlimm wie manch...

Many people have criticised the ETNO's proposals for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), arguing that these would significantly damage net neutrality. These criticisms are not entirely correct – because ETNO's proposals are far worse. ETNO's proposals would squeeze every ounce of innovation and competition out of global Internet networks.

Some governments want more control over the Internet via ITU

bogdan — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:12:06 +0000

There has lately been controversy over proposals made by several countries, such as Russia and China, to give more control over the Internet to the UN International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Key functions of the internet as naming, numbering, addressing and identification are now carried out by ICANN, based in the US independent IANA, and national and regional agencies. Presently, ITU has some managing powers of the internet, such as promoting IPv6 awareness and coordinating international cybersecurity efforts. ITU’s international telecommunications regulations (ITRS), a treaty dating since 1988 (therefore before the existence of the web) are now under discussions to be revised and therefore, several parties have made proposals for the revision of the regulations.

New CoE recommendations for human rights in Internet services

bogdan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:50:31 +0000

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Deutsch: Neue Empfehlungen des Europarats zur Wahrung der Menschenrechte im Int...

On 4 April 2012, the Council of Europe adopted two recommendations made by the Committee of Ministers related to the protection of human rights, particularly the freedom of expression, freedom of association, access to information and the right to private life in relation to search engines and online social networks.

In its recommendations, CoE calls on Member States to engage with search engines in order to provide more transparency regarding the way access to information is provid

CoE's Internet Governance strategy places emphasis on users' rights

bogdan — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:34:03 +0000

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Deutsch: Internet Governance: Europarat will Rechte der Internetnutzer stärken

On 15 March 2012, the 47 Council of Europe (CoE) member states adopted an Internet governance strategy to protect and promote human rights, the rule of law and pluralistic democracy online.

The strategy, which covers 40 lines of action for the period 2012-2015, refers to 6 major areas: Internet's openness, the rights of users, data protection, cybercrime, democracy and culture, and children and young people.

Internet governance dialogue in Belgrade 2011

bogdan — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:34:56 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Internet Governance Dialog 2011 in Belgrad

The 4th European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) took place in Belgrade on 30-31 May 2011 covering a lot of debates on a large area of issues on concepts of Internet Governance, from freedom of expression to privacy and cybersecurity.

The opening session was marked by Internet freedom concepts with the opening video speech by Carl Bildt, the foreign minister of Sweden who noted that "the blocking and filtering of content, popular in certain quarters, should be avoided.

Ten Internet Rights & Principles for Human Rights and Social Justice

bogdan — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:18:09 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: 10 Rechte und Prinzipien für das Internet

The Internet Rights and Principles Dynamic Coalition (DC-IRP) launched on 31 March 2011 its "10 Internet Rights and Principles" for an Internet governance rooted in human rights and social justice.

These 10 Internet Rights and Principles are part of a global initiative undertaken in the framework of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), by the DC-IRP to develop a comprehensive Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet. In addition to the 10 Internet Rights and Principles, the Charter is built into two sections.

EP Culture Committee - Draft Internet Governance Opinion published

bogdan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:09:23 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Kulturausschuss des Europäischen Parlaments – Gutachtenentwurf zu I...

The European Parliament (EP) has started its deliberations on a non-binding report on "Internet governance, the next steps", following the Commission's Communication on this topic in 2009.

The draft Opinion of the European Parliament's Culture Committee has been published.

Finland: Introducing Internet broadband as a universal service

bogdan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:08:59 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Finnland: Breitbandinternet als ein Allgemeindienst eingeführt

According to a decree issued by the Finish Ministry of Transport and Communications, starting with 1 July 2010, a 1 Mbit Internet connection will be defined as a requirement of the Universal Service. Thus, Finland becomes the first country in the world to make access to broadband Internet a legal right.

The decree states that by the end of 2009, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority will establish which of the telecom operators will be imposed this universal service obligation.