WCIT Should Serve as Example Of Necessity of Open Internet Model

The Internet can be severely harmed when governments, rather than stakeholders, attempt to regulate it, said Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., Wednesday at the State of the Net conference. Scalise, chairman of the Republican Study Conference and member of the House Communications Subcommittee, pointed to the ITU’s World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) as an example of government interference harming an open Internet. The ITU has expertise in traditional telephone policy, he said: “Those are not the same kinds of rules that we want to apply to the Internet."

WCIT “was one of those rare issues where Congress came together” to protect Internet freedom, Scalise said. In the lead-up to the Dubai conference last year, Congress passed concurring resolutions restating the country’s position to keep the Internet open and under the multistakeholder model. “We're opposed to any sort of outside interference with that stakeholder model,” he said: Internet freedom is too important “to let transnationals manage, and little by little, start breaking that freedom.” Scalise said he’s “hopeful that we can build on the bipartisan efforts” as the new Congress begins to preserve an open Internet.

Some countries used WCIT to eliminate privacy rights of their citizens, Scalise said, pointing to provisions that allowed governments to read their citizens’ emails “in the name of controlling spam.” The spam provision “validates and justifies the actions” of restrictive regimes, he said: Provisions like those “have the potential to reduce the freedom to speak your mind” and speak out against injustice, a key feature of an open Internet.

This multistakeholder model should apply to cybersecurity policy as well, Scalise said, pointing to WCIT proposals from governments -- specifically Russia and China -- that cited cybersecurity risks as creating a need for a government-managed Internet. The U.S. should be careful not to fall into the same reasoning, he said, imploring the White House to avoid using an executive order to impose cybersecurity mandates. “Internet freedom demands that the government facilitate private cybersecurity efforts [through] the multistakeholder process."

Congress needs to eliminate legacy legislation that hinders Internet innovation rather than focus on leveling the playing field for incumbent technologies, Scalise said. “Congress and the FCC should not only resist the temptation to pile on more regulations” but recognize that often “the old rules don’t apply to the new technology,” he said: Policymakers should “tread carefully as we're dealing with these sensitive issues” around Internet innovation, he said, calling on Congress, the FTC and the NTIA -- the latter currently facilitating multistakeholder discussions on mobile privacy -- to respect the Internet ecosystem. “When there isn’t market failure, the government should just stay away."

Scalise told us he plans to reintroduce his Next Generation Television Marketplace Act “early in this Congress.” The bill -- which would repeal provisions of the 1934 Communications Act and FCC regulations -- was initially introduced late in 2011 and referred to the House Judiciary and Commerce committees. A companion bill was sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who has since resigned to serve as president of the Heritage Foundation. Scalise said he is “still looking for a Senate sponsor who is as eager as Sen. DeMint was to address the challenges and issues of the outdated laws.”