[Chapter-delegates] A request for advice from the Board of Trustees

[Richard Hill]

Dear Ted,

 

Thank you for this.


As I have said before, I think that it is fundamentally wrong to think that technology can condition policy. On the contrary, technology must adapt to policy. A good example is internal combustion engines: they were adapted to reduce gasoline consumption and pollution, even though manufacturers initially complained that the existing design of the engines would not allow that.

 

Which is not to say that I agree with all the policies that are currently being proposed or implemented regarding the Internet. On the contrary, I agree that many of the policies are inappropriate.

 

In my view, ISOC should be promoting appropriate policies, in particular those that would lead to a world:

 

Without pervasive surveillance

 

Without surveillance capitalism 

 

Without abuse of dominant market power [1]

 

With a free and competitive press [2]

 

Without algorithms driving people to stay on websites [3] 

 

Without potential abuse of IoT [4]

 

Best,

Richard

 

[1] http://www.boundary2.org/2018/10/richard-hill-too-big-to-be-review-of-wu-the-curse-of-bigness-antitrust-in-the-new-gilded-age/ 

[2] http://boundary2.org/2015/04/08/the-internet-vs-democracy/ 

[3] http://www.boundary2.org/2021/04/richard-hill-the-curse-of-concentration-review-of-cory-doctorow-how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism/ 

[4] http://www.boundary2.org/2021/06/richard-hill-in-everything-freedom-for-whom-review-of-laura-denardis-the-internet-in-everything-freedom-and-security-in-a-world-with-no-off-switch/ 

 

 

 

From: Chapter-delegates [mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Ted Hardie via Chapter-delegates
Sent: Thursday, 13 October 2022 18:00
To: ISOC Chapter Delegates
Subject: [Chapter-delegates] A request for advice from the Board of Trustees

 

Dear colleagues,

At the annual general meeting, the Board of Trustees discussed the rise in attacks on the Internet way of networking and the broader set of attacks on the Internet's value to humanity.  The Board asked, as a result of these discussions, that the staff build action plans for the upcoming year that reinforced the "Defend" aspect of the society's efforts to build, promote, and defend the Internet.

As we look beyond the staff actions to how to mobilize the society as a whole, the Board is seeking your advice.  We believe that many who are now disparaging the value of the Internet are doing so to audiences of regulators, lawmakers, and civil society that cannot effectively imagine a network that works differently.  As a result, they cannot imagine the damage or impairment that changing the fundamental nature of the Internet would bring.  

To issue an effective call to action, the listeners must understand what changes if they do not act.

We would like to know your thoughts on how to provide that contrast--how to show what the world would look like with an Internet that has succumbed to these threats.   One in which encryption provides no confidentiality; one in which access to the network is determined by state approval rather than voluntary association; one in which every piece of content or commentary must be submitted to algorithmic acceptance prior to being made visible.  

As we come up to the meeting of the board on November 12th and 13th, we would like you to consider what advice you can give us on this point, and we ask you to provide it either with your usual report or instead of it, as you prefer.

Thanks, as always, for your efforts on behalf of our mission,

Ted Hardie
For the Board of Trustees

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