Global Policy Weekly – February 24, 2012
CDT’s Global Policy Weekly highlights the latest Internet policy developments and proposals from around the world, compiled by CDT’s Global Internet Freedom Project.
FREE EXPRESSION AND INTERNET OPENNESS
Pakistan: The Pakistani government, which has a history of limiting political expression online, has published a request for proposals in which it seeks companies that are wiling to build out a system for “filtering and blocking” approximately 500 million so-called “undesirable” websites.
European Commission: The European Commission, responding to continent-wide protests by citizens and members of parliament, is suspending its ACTA-ratification efforts and is referring the issue to the European Court of Justice for an opinion on whether or not the treaty would violate fundamental EU rights.
Tunisia: The Supreme Court of Tunisia has, for the time being, ruled that the Tunisian Internet cannot be filtered for pornographic content. The decision sends the case back to the lower courts for further arguments.
ECJ: The European Court of Justice has ruled that “The owner of an online social network cannot be obliged to install a general filtering system, covering all its users, in order to prevent the unlawful use of musical and audio-visual work.” The court found that such an obligation would violate users’ rights to the protection of personal data and to the freedom to receive and impart information.
Uzbekistan: Uzbek-language Wikipedia articles have been blocked in Uzbekistan for the past few weeks.
France: France has submitted 165 “third strike” cases to courts for judgement under France’s “three strikes” Internet copyright law. Under the law, the courts are authorized to suspend repeat offenders’ Internet access for a month or impose finds of about $2000.
SECURITY AND SURVEILLANCE
India: The Indian press is reporting that the Indian government intends to ask online email providers to route all emails accessed in India via Indian-based servers.
INTERNET GOVERNANCE
ITU: The UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has formed a group that is seeking to develop standards for the cloud computing industry. The group’s initial work will focus on “[c]loud functional architecture, infrastructure and networking,” and “cloud computing resource management and virtualization.”
Multistakeholder organizations: CDT this week published pieces that take a broad look at the OECD’s new Principles for Internet Policy Making and that explore the role of multi-stakeholder organizations in Internet governance.
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