[Chapter-delegates] John Palfrey appeals to Cisco, Facebook and Twitter to join Global Network Initiative

[Joly MacFie]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2011/01/31/2011-01-31_twitter_and_facebook_step_up.html

To date, three corporations -
Google<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Google+Inc.> (which
runs the crucially important
YouTube<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/YouTube+LLC>
 service), Microsoft<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Microsoft+Corporation>
 and Yahoo! <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Yahoo!+Inc.> - have learned
from experience that they are strongest when they stand together as a united
front against government regimes that wish to shut them down or to use their
services as tools for tyrants. They have created something called the *Global
Network Initiative* <http://www.globalnetworkinitiative.org/>.
Under the initiative, the three companies, together with Human Rights
Watch<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Human+Rights+Watch>,
the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Committee to Protect
Journalists<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Committee+to+Protect+Journalists>,
agree to a set of principles for how they will respond to the long arm of
regimes that want to use the Internet to restrict speech and the ability to
organize and communicate without the government listening in at all times.

Further, the initiative is committed to conducting assessments of human
rights impacts; training employees on how to protect freedom of expression
and privacy when faced with government demands; creating the means for
employee whistleblowers to report violations; telling users when governments
seek to remove content or limit access to information and ideas and the
circumstances where they may be required to disclose personal information;
and challenging governments in courts when faced with restrictions that
appear inconsistent with domestic law or international human rights laws.

The Global Network Initiative is, at least so far, a relatively docile
nonprofit organization; it is not yet feared by regimes like
Egypt<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Egypt>'s,
and it may never be. But there's a way to give it more teeth: Twitter and
Facebook should immediately join in the effort, as should
Cisco<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Cisco+Systems+Inc.> and
other companies that are playing big roles in the ways that activism and
governance are taking place in cyberspace. More powerful players will make
it more robust - and its principles more enforceable.

If the market does not work and companies do not come together voluntarily,
we will need other mechanisms to ensure that platforms like Twitter and
Facebook and many mobile digital tools - and those that will inevitably come
after them - will stay live in times of crisis.

With great success in terms of global adoption comes great responsibility
for companies like Twitter and Facebook. Governments need to stand with them
- but they need to stand together - to help them fulfill their
pro-democratic promise.


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Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
 http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
  VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
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