Presidential Candidates Told to Prioritize Internet Freedom

A coalition of leading public interest and civil rights groups on Monday released an internet policy platform designed to pressure the 2016 presidential candidates into prioritizing online free speech, access, privacy, and openness.

The internet has become an all-important engine for economic growth, political organizing and citizen empowerment, according to the coalition, so protecting its open and freewheeling nature is a crucial national imperative. This is especially true at a time when key public interest principles like net neutrality, the policy that all content on the internet should be equally accessible, are under attack from the broadband industry and its political allies.

"Political parties and policymakers can no longer ignore the central role the internet plays in our democracy," Craig Aaron, president and CEO of DC-based public interest group Free Press, said in a statement. "The internet isn't just a tool to get elected; it's essential infrastructure that links us together and powers our economy—and as such it should be a top policy priority."

The platform, which a spokesperson for the group said has been under development since last September, links together a constellation of policy issues designed to advance and maintain internet freedom. The coalition includes the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Media Justice, ColorOfChange, Demand Progress, Free Press, New America's Open Technology Institute, and Public Knowledge.

"As the parties draft their platforms for 2016, they must listen to the millions and millions of people who want leaders to prioritize internet and technology policies that promote opportunity and free expression for all," said Aaron. "The 2016 Internet Policy Platform offers a roadmap for any candidate truly committed to a future where everyone can share in the benefits of an open network free of gatekeepers, surveillance and discrimination."

The platform calls for the vigorous defense of the Federal Communications Commission's decision to reclassify broadband companies as "common carriers" as part of the agency's landmark 2015 net neutrality policy. (That policy is currently being contested in federal court; a ruling is expected any day.) The platform also opposes increasingly ubiquitous "zero-rating" schemes that exempt certain online services from data caps, effectively favoring those services over rival offerings and undermining net neutrality, according to the coalition.

The platform makes online free speech a priority, and opposes efforts that would undermine First Amendment rights in the name of national security, as well as efforts that would compromise the "right to record" by making it illegal for people to "photograph or record official and police activity when it takes place in public."

The platform prioritizes affordable internet access at a time when the "digital divide" between internet "haves" and "have-nots" remains a persistent and troubling source of inequality. The platform calls for the expansion of ubiquitous Wi-Fi networks, the promotion of community broadband networks (and the repeal of state laws that pose barriers to such networks), and the expansion of federal programs like Lifeline designed to ensure that low-income communities and communities of color have affordable internet access.

"Today American Latinx, African American and Native American people are significantly less likely to have home broadband, with cost being a major barrier to adoption," Jessica J. González, executive vice president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said in a statement. "Those on the wrong side of the digital divide understand that being offline puts them at a huge disadvantage in our digital society. The government must double down on efforts to close the digital divide, and preserve an open internet so that social justice activists can continue to organize online and people of color can voice their stories, which often go untold on traditional media."

The platform opposes further consolidation in the broadband industry, especially at a time when the decades-long trend of cable and phone company mega-mergers has reduced the number of industry players to a small handful of corporate giants. "Policymakers should also reject providers' false claims that a wealth of competitive choices exists," the platform states. "The industry is moving in the opposite direction, favoring mergers and acquisitions over competition."

Sarah Morris, director of open internet policy for New America's Open Technology Institute, said in a statement that the 2016 presidential candidates "must be committed to promoting competition in the broadband marketplace, creating space for disruptive broadband models to flourish and ensuring that efforts to improve broadband adoption are recognized and supported."

The platform also calls for increased consumer privacy protections, especially with respect to government efforts to track the online behavior of American citizens, and supports ongoing efforts to streamline Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) responses, limit the abuse of FOIA exemptions, and curtail over-classification of official documents that keeps important government activity hidden from public view.

"Political leaders need to safeguard civil liberties," the platform states. "That means a full review of all surveillance related legislation, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, that fails to adequately protect the privacy of our online communications and is ripe for abuse."

A spokesperson for the coalition said that the platform has been distributed to the leading presidential candidates. Representatives for Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders, Republican Donald J. Trump, and Libertarian Gary Johnson did not immediately return a request from Motherboard for comment on the platform.