[isoc-ny] Internet Society North America calls for fresh multistakeholder approach to Net Neutrality

[ISOC-NY announcements]

Last week was a busy one! A lot of events, and other distractions. So you
may have missed this opinion piece from Internet Society North America
Regional Bureau Director Mark Buell, in which he suggests that Internet
regulation is too important to be left to the regulators..


https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/north-america-bureau/2017/05/what-net-neutrality-and-isnt

There are few Internet policy issues as divisive as net neutrality, neither
are there many issues that apparently elicit such passion. At the root of
the debate is, in my opinion, not necessarily the principles of net
neutrality; rather, I believe it is in the mechanism used to enforce it.

While there is no single interpretation of what net neutrality is, there
are certain accepted principles set forth by Timothy Wu (who coined the
term in 2003) that are widely accepted. This includes the principle that
all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally or ‘neutrally’ by
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) without blocking, throttling or
discriminating against a competitor’s content or services.

Over the years, almost all participants in the Internet ecosystem—from
civil society and public advocates to the largest Silicon Valley tech
companies to ISPs themselves—have come around to agreeing with this general
version of these principles.

The Internet Society published a policy brief on net neutrality
<https://www.internetsociety.org/policybriefs/networkneutrality> in 2015.
In this brief, we outline how openness is a fundamental value that has
contributed to the success of the Internet, both in the U.S. and around the
world. We have always supported the values of a truly global and open
Internet based on transparency, access and choice.

Simply put, the Internet Society believes net neutrality means that ISPs
should ensure Internet users have unhampered access to the legal content
they want. We believe these principles should lead the way for the
Internet’s continued growth and success globally. Further, we firmly
believe that a multistakeholder process
<https://www.internetsociety.org/doc/internet-governance-why-multistakeholder-approach-works>
is
the best way to develop the policy tools needed to preserve the open
Internet in the future.

When the FCC voted on the Open Internet Order in 2015, we were concerned
<https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/public-policy/2015/02/thoughts-todays-fcc-net-neutrality-ruling>
about
whether an outdated statute like Title II was the right vehicle to preserve
these core principles. At the same time, we knew that after a long and, at
times, tortured proceeding, the U.S. Internet market needed a stable legal
foundation that would generate the confidence to support growth,
investment, competition, and opportunity. With the latest announcement from
the FCC, the U.S. is once again faced with instability and lack of
regulatory certainty. On the one hand, we have consensus on the principles,
but on the other we have no clarity on how or if they will be enforced.

The time has come to put this issue to rest. What is needed is an approach
to the open Internet that upholds the core Internet principles, provides
market stability, a solution that puts consumers at the center, and creates
opportunity for the future. Indeed, if we can learn anything from the net
neutrality debate in the U.S. over the past decade, it is that a
multistakeholder approach is urgently needed. We can no longer rely on
traditional regulatory processes to develop solutions that can keep pace
with the technologies of the future.

For this reason, I hope that the U.S. government can take a more
sustainable approach to net neutrality; one that upholds the principles
that are rooted in the Internet Society’s core values of a global and open
Internet. Americans need clarity in this debate. By adopting a
multistakeholder approach to develop a clear, sustainable and fair legal
framework for net neutrality – one that reflects the dynamic nature of the
Internet – we can finally achieve that stability that is so needed.

Should the U.S. government choose to adopt such an approach, I would look
forward to participating in a meaningful multistakeholder process, along
with diverse stakeholders, to seek consensus on an enduring framework that
will continue the success of the global Internet for generations to come.
​
MARK BUELL <https://www.internetsociety.org/who-we-are/staff/mark-buell>
Regional Bureau Director, North America​

buell at isoc.org

-- 

Joly MacFie
President - Internet Society New York Chapter (ISOC-NY)
http://isoc-ny.org          218 565 9365
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