The House Communications Subcommittee plans to mark up...
The House Communications Subcommittee plans to mark up legislation this week to codify U.S. policy regarding Internet governance, it said in a news release Friday. The three-page bill, which was expected, would clarify that it is the “policy of the…
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United States to promote a global Internet free from government control and to preserve and advance the successful multistakeholder model that governs the Internet,” according to a revised draft of the bill published last week (http://1.usa.gov/10FeUsK). The discussion draft was only slightly modified from an earlier draft of the bill made public in February. The bill echoes language in House and Senate resolutions passed last year opposing the revised International Telecommunication Regulations adopted at the World Conference on International Telecommunications. The non-binding resolutions sought to preserve “the multi-stakeholder governance model under which the Internet has thrived” (CD Dec 6 p16). Earlier this year House lawmakers said the U.S. must redouble its efforts to combat any further restrictions of the Internet (CD Feb 6 p9). The international community will again take up the debate over Internet regulations this year when the ITU hosts the World Telecommunications/ICT Policy Forum, the World Summit on the Information Society Forum, and the Internet Governance Forum. Passage of the bill would make keeping the global Internet free from government control the official U.S policy “rather than merely a sense of the Congress in light of continued international efforts to regulate the Internet,” said the committee news release. “By strengthening last year’s legislation from a resolution opposing a particular treaty proposal to the official policy of the United States, Congress will demonstrate its commitment to Internet freedom and push back on those nations that might subvert the Internet for their own purposes,” said a committee majority memo published last week. Opening statements will be Wednesday at 4 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn and the subcommittee will reconvene on Thursday at 2:15 p.m., according to a news release. The Telecommunications Industry Association commended the committee’s legislative draft in a separate news release. “Passage of this legislation will confirm that the United States can speak with an even stronger voice against any efforts to place Internet governance under the control of a multi-national body,” the group said.