Editor’s Note: This declaration, which includes five core principles, was initially the brainchild of the U.S.-based advocacy group Free Press and the New America Foundation’s Open Technologies Institute. In short order, thousands of organizations, startup entrepreneurs and tech luminaries joined the Declaration of Internet Freedom bandwagon. One key aim is to secure millions of endorsements of the declaration on the web-based petition by individuals and organizations, as an effective means for gaining sufficient political clout to be able to combat any cabal of special interests that might seek to do away with unfettered Internet use for its own advantage.
Declaration of Internet Freedom
Preamble
We believe that a free and open Internet can bring about a better world. To keep the Internet free and open, we call on communities, industries and countries to recognize these principles. We believe that they will help to bring about more creativity, more innovation and more open societies.
DECLARATION
We stand for a free and open Internet.
We support transparent and participatory processes for making Internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:
- Expression: Don’t censor the Internet.
- Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.
- Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.
- Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don’t block new technologies and don’t punish innovators for their users’ actions.
- Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone’s ability to control how their data and devices are used.
Source for text and image:
Http://www.internetdeclaration.org
Further reading:
Digital Dilemmas: Power, Resistance, and the Internet, M.I. Franklin, New York: Oxford University Press, 2013
Defining the ‘We’ in the Declaration of Internet Freedom: by Nancy Scola, The Atlantic Monthly
