Public Interest Groups Release 2016 Internet Policy Platform
The 2016 Internet Policy Platform, released Monday and backed by 17 public interest groups, urges policymakers to oppose “unreasonable practices, such as the use of punitive and unnecessary data caps and zero-rating schemes that favor the content and services of…
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ISPs and their affiliates” and uphold the FCC net neutrality order and decision to reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. The backers include the American Civil Liberties Union, Demand Progress, Free Press and Public Knowledge. They sent the eight-page platform to party chairs and presidential contenders Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. “As the parties draft their platforms for 2016, they must listen to the millions and millions of people who want leaders to prioritize internet and technology policies that promote opportunity and free expression for all,” Free Press President Craig Aaron said. “The 2016 Internet Policy Platform offers a roadmap for any candidate truly committed to a future where everyone can share in the benefits of an open network free of gatekeepers, surveillance and discrimination.” The platform also addresses data security. Companies must take steps including “publishing annual reports about government data requests, notifying users when the government seeks to access their data or censor certain content, and requiring a search warrant before handing over user content,” the platform said. It urged reining in “Executive Order 12333, which is being used to indiscriminately collect masses of Internet data outside the U.S. -- even when that data includes some communications by people inside the U.S.” and opposing “legal limits to encryption systems that make them vulnerable to backdoor hacks and other incursions by government authorities.” The FCC “has a congressionally mandated responsibility to ‘accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition,’” it said. “The agency needs to take this mandate seriously and oppose the drift toward monopoly.” The groups encouraged promotion of “mobile broadband competition by taking a serious look at spectrum concentration” and acting “to reduce the stranglehold that the two largest carriers have over the most valuable spectrum -- both in upcoming license auctions and in terms of what these companies already control today.” They said the FCC should “safeguard” municipal broadband networks and “improve the efficiency and effectiveness” of USF programs.