The House voted 414-0 Thursday for H.Con. Res. 127, supporting...

The House voted 414-0 Thursday for H.Con. Res. 127, supporting attempts to preserve “the multistakeholder governance model under which the Internet has thrived.” The resolution urges the NTIA director and the State Department coordinator for international communications and information policy to continue to advance “the consistent and unequivocal policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the successful multi stakeholder model that governs the Internet today” as the nation prepares for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The resolution (http://xrl.us/bni6f8) is sponsored by Reps. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., Fred Upton, R-Mich., Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. It’s expected that nations like Russia and China will introduce International Telecommunications Regulations proposals regarding the Internet at WCIT. In a statement on the House floor Wednesday, Eshoo urged lawmakers to vote in favor of the resolution to protect the current model of open Internet. Several “nations including Russia are set on asserting intergovernmental control over the Internet -- leading to a balkanized Internet where censorship could become the new norm,” she said. “While there is no question that nations must work together to address challenges to the Internet’s growth and stability ... these issues can best be addressed under the existing model.” The U.S. must “defend the current model of Internet governance” at the WCIT conference, she said. “The very fabric of the free and open Internet is at stake.” Eshoo reminded her colleagues that the bipartisan resolution “reflects a viewpoint already shared by the Obama administration, the FCC and the U.S. delegation to the WCIT.” Earlier this week, Terry Kramer, head of the U.S. delegation to WCIT, said the delegation plans to block any proposals to interfere with multi-stakeholder structure and openness of the Internet (CD Aug 2 p1). Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced the Senate counterpart to the House resolution in June (http://xrl.us/bni6jb). “An international regulatory regime goes against the very nature of the Internet and its purpose of sharing ideas and connecting people,” Rubio said in a statement when the resolution was introduced (http://xrl.us/bni6jq). “The United States must lead an international effort to prevent authoritarian governments and regimes from diminishing Internet freedom.” The resolution was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Earlier this week, Rubio unsuccessfully offered the resolution as an amendment to the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414). Americans’ privacy rights online and off precede the Constitution, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Thursday morning before the House vote at a TechFreedom event held at the Heritage Foundation. A person’s right to privacy “pre-exists” the Constitution, he said: “If you believe in God, a creator, it comes in a natural way, it’s yours. These are unenumerated rights.” Giving legal immunity to telecom companies is “bad for privacy” and it was a “mistake” for the government to do so in the PATRIOT Act, Paul said. “I'm not for suing companies, but I'm not for telling companies they can do whatever they want to their consumers and they can run over their consumers by abdicating their contracts,” he said. “That’s what happens with immunity. If you give companies immunity, then they are not going to pay any attention to their contracts.” Lawmakers need to reverse the trend “that says the Fourth Amendment does not apply to your third-party records,” he said. “Should you have Fourth Amendment protections for your own protection? And I think you should. ... The bottom line is I don’t want people trolling though my records.” Paul said the Internet should be regulated by the market, not the government and particularly not the U.N. Paul’s concerned that countries like Russia and China are proposing ideas at the WCIT, scheduled to meet in Dubai in December, that could permit them to “shut down” online content and dissent, he said. “I really don’t want Russia and China having much of a say in what happens with regulating the Internet.”