FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2014
Contact: Scott Cleland 703-217-2407
The President’s Call for Regulating the Internet as a Title II Utility Could Break the Global Internet
Autocratic Nations Want the UN’s International Telecommunications Union to Control the Internet
Reclassifying the Internet as “Telecommunications” Isn’t Domestic Policy, but Trade/Foreign Policy
WASHINGTON D.C. – The following may be attributed to Scott Cleland, Chairman of NetCompetition:
“For twenty years, the solid foundation of a free and open global Internet has been built upon bipartisan, Clinton Administration Internet, trade and foreign policy, that ensured that our global trading partners did not legally classify Internet traffic as a price and tariff regulated “telecommunications” utility service like under Title II. The longstanding, lightly regulated “information services” classification has allowed Internet traffic to flow freely as un-bordered, un-tariffed Internet traffic, rather than UN-regulated and tariffed “telecommunications” trade.”
“The U.S. by far has the most to lose economically and geopolitically, if the world follows the President’s lead and imposes their own maximal-regulation of their national Internet infrastructure, because America is by far the largest exporter of Internet content, products and services.”
“Edward Snowden’s leaks that the NSA was surveilling most all foreign Internet activity, has catalyzed Nations around the world to take more national control over their Internet borders, and the President’s call for imposing the most heavy-handed regulation available in the United States could further accelerate the de-American-ization of the free and open global Internet.”
“Changing the legal status of Internet traffic is not a trivial domestic regulatory issue but a major trade and foreign policy issue given how central the Internet has become to America’s economy and its standing in the world.”
***
NETCompetition.org is a pro-competition e-forum representing broadband interests. See www.netcompetition.org.
Scott Cleland served as Deputy U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy in the George H. W. Bush Administration.
