EU, ITU Urge Syria to Restore Citizens’ Internet Access on Eve of WCIT

All 84 of Syria’s IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet, said “Internet intelligence” provider Renesys in a blog post Friday (http://xrl.us/bn33c3). Five networks that use Syrian-registered IP space can still be reached and are hosting Syrian content, but are originated by India’s Tata Communications, had been “torn down and are no longer routed” as of Friday, it said. “These blocks survived [Thursday]’s Internet blackout in Syria, but 12 hours after the onset, they, too are off the air."

The EU “is seriously concerned” by the news of Syria’s Internet blackout, a spokesman for EU High Representative Catherine Ashton told us Friday. The circumstances of the total Internet shutdown are unclear, he said. The EU “considers it of primary importance that all communication networks are restored without delay and that unhindered access to all media, including the Internet, is guaranteed,” the spokesman said.

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré also asked Syria Friday to restore its citizens access to the Internet. Syria is a signatory of the ITU Constitution and Convention, which includes provisions that protect the freedom to communicate and the right to access critical infrastructure, he told reporters Friday. Internet governance has become a part of the larger debate surrounding the ITU-hosted WCIT, which begins Monday in Dubai. Despite what critics have said, WCIT cannot give the ITU control of Internet governance, Touré said. “Despite repeating this many times, it seems the message is simply not getting through."

The events in Syria highlight the importance of WCIT and its implications for online free speech, said Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn. Provisions floated by some ITU members would explicitly authorize governments such as Syria to disrupt Internet traffic and control Internet architecture, including traffic routing, on the ground that censorship is needed to protect public order or suppress insurrection, she said. Civil society has worried for months that International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) relating to controlling Internet traffic flow, advanced in the name of worthy goals such as cybersecurity or ensuring quality of service, have implications for free expression and the free flow of information online. “Hopefully, the events in Syria occurring on the very eve of the WCIT will encourage all member states who value free expression as a fundamental human right to carefully weigh the danger to these values inherent in any ITR expressly recognizing the right of governments to disrupt or control Internet traffic routing,” she said.

Europe vowed to defend the open Internet at WCIT, the European Commission said Friday. The commission’s common position closely tracks with what the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations said in its position paper Thursday (CD Nov 30 p8). The EU will oppose any proposals that may affect EU common rules, change their scope or place obligations on operators that go beyond those already provided for, it said. It will back proposals that seek to ensure that the revised ITRs remain high level, strategic and technology neutral, and oppose proposals to make ITU recommendations binding, it said. The EU will try to ensure that the revision process doesn’t broaden the scope of the current ITRs, and it will back proposals to respect human rights in relation to international telecommunications, such as privacy and personal data protection, it said. The negotiating stance also includes support for measures on greater international cooperation to protect the robustness of networks used for telecom traffic; and for procompetitive measures and more transparency in pricing for international traffic and roaming, based on commercial negotiations in a free and fair marketplace.

"The European Union’s firm view is that the Internet works,” said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The EU will pay particularly close attention to any suggestion that cybersecurity could be used as a euphemism for controlling freedom of expression, or recommendations on routing and traffic management, which could threaten the open Internet, Kroes’ spokesman said.

The U.S. has also repeatedly opposed efforts to inject Internet governance into the revised ITRs. Officials from three federal agencies -- FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling and Philip Verveer, the State Department’s U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy -- said Friday that the U.S. government is committed to the current multistakeholder model of Internet governance, which the U.S. believes has “enabled the Internet to flourish.” Support for the multistakeholder model comes from nations around the world, most recently by members of civil society who attended the Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, the officials said in a blog post. “We have and will continue to advocate for an Internet that is not dominated by any one player or group of players, and one that is free from bureaucratic layers that cannot keep up with the pace of change. We will work with everyone to ensure that we have a global Internet that allows all voices to be heard” (http://xrl.us/bn39y2).