[Chapter-delegates] How should we support out chapters in Brazil?

Wed Aug 9 09:09:47 PDT 2017

Dear all

I'm part of ISOC Blockchain SIG board, Brazilian, a not so active member of
ISOC Brazil but

Please do support the repudiation note on Brazilian government attack on
the Multistakeholder Model itself, not only CGI.br

Share it as widely as you can

This is a threat to all countries, if all governments decide they are the
only ones "in charge of the internet" we'll not only see weakened our local
multistakeholder institution but several initiatives

Thank you for talking about this

On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 12:49 PM, Dave Burstein <daveb at dslprime.com> wrote:

> Folks
>
> Carlos Alfonso, President of our Brazilian Chapter, sent the below note
> about a government attack on CGI.br, an internationally respected group in
> Internet policy. It worth reading.
>
> Assuming the chapter concurs, I suggest we give them strong support.
>
> It was good to see our spokeswoman Allesandra Desantillana told an
> Australian newspaper, “however any public positions and statements of the
> chapters are their own” (Rupert Murdoch's paper was attacking our
> Australian chapter.)
>
> Possibilities for support from other chapters:
>
>
>    - If requested by the Brazil Chapter, I will recommend to the New York
>    Chapter we begin a simple petition of support for the actions of the
>    Brazilian chapter.
>    - Our chapters reach out to our own governments to speak up at the ITU
>    & IGF to symbolize international support. (At least four ISOC people,
>    myself included, are on the official U.S. State Department
>    Telecommunications Advisory Committee and can raise the issue there.)
>
>
> Possibilities for individual member support
>
>    - I'm a working reporter and know most of the international telecom
>    reporters. I don't have time to run a campaign, but I have a good mailing
>    list and can provide pointers on where and how to get the message across.
>    - If you think an ISOC board resolution is appropriate, reach out to
>    the board members. They are all dedicated and have been responsive when I
>    reached out personally.
>    - Write letters and opeds for publications that might be interested.
>
> Possibilities for ISOC organization support
>
>    - We should begin by acknowledging that our chapters understand the
>    local situation better than the people in DC and Geneva. We should ask them
>    how we can help, rather than issuing directives.
>    - We spend $millions every year on "policy advocacy", including at
>    least three staffers who cost $2,000 or more per day. People like Sally
>    Wentworth have direct and indirect connections into governments like
>    Brazil. It would be wrong to a former U.S. State Department staffer to lead
>    a domestic Brazilian campaign, but guidance from someone with her
>    experience can be very helpful.
>    - We should get off our butts and move on the chapters proposal for 3%
>    of ISOC's budget to be controlled by the chapters. This would allow the
>    Brazilian chapter, for example, to rent a hotel room for a focused event
>    without having to ask DC for funds.
>    - Similarly, we have an enormous "communications" budget that includes
>    at least two staffers with years of pr experience, Allesandra Desantillana
>    and Wende Cover. Their advice can be very helpful.
>
> Better ideas welcome.
>
> Repudiation note
>
> On the attacks of the Temer government against the Internet Steering
> Committee in Brazil
>
> The Coalition on Network Rights is publicly repudiating and denouncing
> the most recent measure of the Temer management against the rights of
> Internet users in Brazil. Unilaterally, the Federal Government published
> on Tuesday, August 8th, in the Official Gazette (DOU), a public
> consultation aimed at changes in the composition, election process and
> attributions of the Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br).
>
> Composed by representatives of the government, the private sector, civil
> society and technical and academic specialists, CGI.br is, since its
> creation, in 1995, responsible for establishing standards and procedures
> for the use and development of the Internet in Brazil. An international
> reference for multistakeholder Internet governance, the Committee had
> its role strengthened following the promulgation of the Internet Civil
> Rights Framework (Law 12.965/2014, known as the "Marco Civil") and its
> regulatory decree, which establishes that it is the responsibility of
> the committee to define the guidelines for all issues related to the
> sector. From then on, the CGI.br became the subject of the private
> sector's dispute and greater interest.
>
> By publishing a public consultation to significantly change the Steering
> Committee model unilaterally and without any prior dialogue within the
> CGI.br itself, the government overrides the law and breaks with the
> pluralism that marks the debates on the Internet and its governance in
> Brazil.
>
> The consultation was not the subject of the last CGI.br meeting, held in
> May, and on Monday, August 7th, the day before publication in the DOU,
> the committee's coordinator appointed by the government, Maximiliano
> Martinhão, only sent an e-mail to the list of board members reporting
> that the Federal Government intended to discuss the issue - without,
> however, informing that everything was already set, in the process of
> being officially published. It is worth mentioning that, on August 18th,
> the first meeting of the new CGI.br management takes place, and the
> government could have waited to set the issue in a democratic way with
> the committee members. However, it preferred to act in an autocratic way.
>
> Since his inauguration as coordinator last year, Martinhão - who is also
> the Information Technology Policy Secretary at the Ministry of Science,
> Technology, Innovation and Communications - has made public statements
> in support of changes to the Internet Steering Committee. As early as
> June 2016, in the first meeting he chaired at CGI.br, after the change
> in command of the federal government, he declared that he was "receiving
> demands from small providers, content providers and investors" to change
> the composition of the body.
>
> The pressure to revise the strength of civil society in the committee
> grew, especially on the part of telecommunications operators, supporters
> of the government. In December, during the Internet Governance Forum in
> Mexico, organized by the United Nations, a group of civil society
> entities from more than 20 countries expressed concern and denounced
> attempts to weaken CGI.br by the Temer administration. In the first half
> of 2017, the government maneuvered to impose a standstill on behalf of a
> questionable "economy of resources".
>
> Martinhão and other members of the Kassab/Temer administration have also
> publicly defended the achievements of the Civil Internet Framework,
> proposing the easing of network neutrality and criticizing the need for
> users to consent to the processing of their personal data. In this
> context, the multi-sectoral composition of CGI.br has been fundamental
> for the defense of the postulates of the MCI and basic principles for
> the guarantee of a free, open and plural internet.
>
> For this reason, this Coalition - which brings together researchers,
> academics, developers, activists and consumer protection and freedom of
> speech entities - launched, during the last CGI electoral process, a
> public platform that called for the "strengthening of the Internet
> Steering Committee in Brazil, preserving its attributions and its
> multistakeholder character, as a guarantee of the multi-participatory
> and democratic governance of the Internet" in the country. After all,
> changing the CGI is strategic for the sectors that want to change the
> direction of Internet policies that have been implemented in the country.
>
> In this sense, considering the "Marco Civil", the multistakeholder
> character of the CGI and also the political moment that the country is
> going through - from an interim government of questionable legitimacy to
> undertake such changes - the Coalition on Network Rights demands the
> immediate cancellation this consultation.
>
> It is unacceptable that a process directly related to Internet
> governance is affected by a dubious public consultation without its
> guidelines having been discussed before, internally, by CGI.br. It is
> another example of the modus operandi of the administration that
> occupies the federal government and that has little appreciation for
> democratic processes. We will continue to denounce such attacks and seek
> support from different sectors, both inside and outside Brazil, against
> the dismantling of the Internet Steering Committee.
>
> August 8th, 2017
> Coalition on Network Rights
> Coalizão Direitos na Rede
> https://direitosnarede.org.br
>
> --
>
> Carlos A. Afonso
> [emails são pessoais exceto quando explicitamente indicado em contrário]
> [emails are personal unless explicitly indicated otherwise]
>
> Instituto Nupef - https://nupef.org.br
> ISOC-BR - https://isoc.org.br
>
> --
> Editor, Fast Net News, WIreless One.news, Net Policy News and DSL Prime
> Author with Jennie Bourne  DSL (Wiley) and Web Video: Making It Great,
> Getting It Noticed (Peachpit)
>
>
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