THE SLIDE FROM “self-regulaTion” TO CORPORATE CENSORSHIP THE SCALE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MOVES TO ENTRUST INTERNET INTERMEDIARIES WITH A CORNERSTONE OF DEMOCRACy – open elecTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS This document is EXECUTIVE distributed under a Creative Commons 3.0 SUMMARY Licence Discussion Paper Prepared by Joe McNamee EU Advocacy Coordinator European Digital Rights Introduction Self-regulation has traditionally been used in the Internet sector to permit companies in the fast-moving technology world to manage their networks efficiently in Rue Montoyer 39/9, B-1000 Brussels a way which gives flexible protection to their networks and protects consumers from E-Mail:
[email protected], problems like spam. Now, increasing coercion of Internet intermediaries to police and punish their own consumers is being implemented under the flag of “self-regulation” http://www.edri.org even though it is not regulation – it is policing – and it is not “self-” because it is their consumers and not themselves that are being policed. 01/2011 Net neutrality and online policing Large Internet access providers are GLOSSARY requesting and, sometimes, demanding increased powers to interfere with Access provider IP address traffic – to limit certain services or to A company that provides connections to the Each device connected to the Internet has a demand payment from high-bandwidth Internet for individual consumers, organisations unique number that allows it to communicate services. Governments are demanding or companies. with other devices. more voluntary