

Google's campaign for a free and open internet - diggan
https://www.google.com/takeaction/#

======
magicalist
Great site (and I agree with the cause), but it's pretty light on the actual
info and analysis side of things. You need a good, clear hook to get people
invested enough to stick around the site, granted, but there should be a page
on the site with a lot more information for people that want it. Otherwise
it's (partly) reducing an attempt to educate the public to asking people to
sign a petition that says "evil shadowy government conspiracies to censor the
web are bad".

That's super, but it's pretty obvious (I hope...) to most people that there
has to be more subtlety to the situation than that, which risks alienating
potential supporters, or at least gets some people saying, "well I want to
find out more before I sign" and then they never come back.

On the "what's at stake" page, at the very bottom, there is a link to this
related site:

<https://www.whatistheitu.org/>

which seems good to my eyes and has a little more information, but, more
importantly, offers a list of links to major publications that have covered
the issue. With those, you can pick one you might trust and learn more, if you
want to. I'm not sure how closely related that site is to Google, but one
obvious thing that could be added to this site is a "What is the ITU" tab in
the site navigation, which could consist of that exact page.

(I'm not saying the link should be replaced. It's notable on HN that google is
doing this, I just wish google's site had more information, or at least more
prominent sources for more information, for those who are curious)

~~~
irahul
I think Google is going for something which a vast majority can relate to.
Making it detail oriented might give the perception that whatever this is, it
only affects the techies.

That said, it should have still have details for those who fall in the
category "I would like to know, but if it's not mentioned here, I am not going
to do my own research".

When it says YouTube can be tolled, a detail page explaining that currently
YouTube doesn't have to pay anything to the providers as consumer pays for it,
and this is how it always has been, and how tolling will affect the overall
web can help put things in perspective.

I doubt many people know how the internet works, and how putting barriers will
affect them. Light details on how the internet works, with some scenarios on
how it will affect a normal consumer will be the right mix.

------
ommunist
Google is a weapon used by the US government to establish the domination and
seize control over citizens access to information. Would Google really care
about the open Internet, it'd license itself with GNU Public license long time
ago. This call is hypocrisy. It is like a bank which collected all the gold is
calling to the mob to rob some other bank where some other gold is. Once the
other bank is robbed and cease to exist, the mob will inevitably bring the
gold back to the initiator of the robbery. True freedom in the Internet is in
hands of its users already. They just don't want it and give their own power
to things like Google, allowing a costly layer between their needs and
fulfilment. What can you do about it is another question.

~~~
wildgift
While I wouldn't put it that way... I think it's true that Google is not a
disinterested beacon of freedom. They align with it for their own purposes.

~~~
throwaway64
Its best to always remember this, Google was not on the side of "internet
freedom" when they recommended to the FCC that wireless networks didn't need
net neutrality.

~~~
Evbn
This? [http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/08/joint-
policy-...](http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/08/joint-policy-
proposal-for-open-internet.html?m=1)

Please explain where Google harmed Internet freedom. Without Google and
Android the mobile Internet would be 98% gated by the iOS app store and 2%
mobile web running on dead-ended mobile safari with a slow JS engine.

~~~
throwaway64
"we both recognize that wireless broadband is different from the traditional
wireline world, in part because the mobile marketplace is more competitive and
changing rapidly. In recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless
broadband marketplace, under this proposal we would not now apply most of the
wireline principles to wireless, except for the transparency requirement. "

IE, nothing about network neutrality, except telling people what you
throttle/etc should apply to wireless.

------
bosch
It should have a * at the end of the statement that reads:

* As long as Google can track you.

~~~
gulbrandr
This is what it is written:

    
    
      A free and open world depends on a free and open web.
    

This is what I read:

    
    
      Google's business depends on a free and open web.

~~~
lutusp
They might both be true at once. The truth of one doesn't invalidate the truth
of the other.

------
jfaucett
Maybe this is a good campaign maybe not, from the site though there's a huge
problem of basically no details, references or data anywhere. How can 3
paragraphs without anything to back it up convince so many people to submit
their names for something? Here's a link to one article I quickly found just
looking for a perspective on this. <http://www.brecorder.com/it-a-
computers/206/1260960/>

Anyone have others?

~~~
ihsw
People rallied against SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA without knowing any details. These
acronyms are all outlining pro-censorship, government-sponsored, broad-
sweeping and baseless monitoring of citizens -- that much is certain.

I'd hate to sound like a rabid Ron Paul fan but he had a point in his farewell
speech, "They argue that freedom must be directed and managed to achieve
fairness and equality thus making it acceptable to curtail, through force,
certain liberties."

------
8ig8
Who actually sees these pages on Google? Seriously, who is the intended
audience? I'm not knocking the page or the messages, I just don't understand
the target? Do people browse Google? I see this stuff only via HN. I'm curious
how others find it.

~~~
davorak
I got an email directly from google since I signed up from them to receive
such information. I believe they collected email addresses when it was unsure
weather SOPA would pass.

------
jarek-foksa
This is just Google running FUD campaign to protect its own business. Strong
enforcement of intelectual property laws means problems to any company that
indexes or hosts user generated content, but I fail to see how it could
endanger free speech.

~~~
jrl
If governments can censor for a "good" purpose, they can also censor for a
"bad" one. For example, the laws and technology that allow you to interrupt
access to a piracy website could be used to censor any controversial content
(note that many positive advances in society, such as women's voting rights,
were controversial when first discussed).

So, strong enforcement of intellectual property laws means problems to... free
speech and society's progress, if that involves filtering or censoring content
on the internet.

------
alpb
I'm surprised no discussion about the topic arised in comments. Here are a few
points:

\- What is that close-door meeting called? Who are the participants? How does
Google know about this?

\- What can Google about it? (besides collecting emails)

\- How come collecting lots of emails and location can 'really' help
preventing so many governments from doing something? (I don't know any
examples, that's why I'm asking)

\- Why is Google doing this?

------
ikawe
Surely the "evil shadowy governments" are not meeting under the explicit
auspices of "curtailing internet freedom." What are the "pro" arguments for
the meeting?

~~~
wmf
One of the ITU's goals is "development", meaning rich countries/companies
should subsidize Internet infrastructure deployment (actually corrupt PTTs) in
developing countries. The phone network already works this way, but that gravy
train is coming to an end.

Another goal is "diversity/localism", meaning each country should be able to
impose its own values on the Internet (e.g. the great firewalls of China,
Iran, Saudi Arabia). Since this already exists, it's not clear why regulations
need to be changed to allow it.

~~~
Evbn
So companies can say "not our fault" when they provide services to enemies of
the US/humanity.

------
miles_matthias
Pretty surprised the site looks so terrible on my phone.

~~~
af3
debug CSS and JS, then post a GreaseMonkey script to fix it. #freeandopen

~~~
Evbn
Not on Google's mobile browsers :-(

------
bobak
I believe our communication should have no centralized control. It should tend
toward being survivable of anything, incl. people who think they are well
meaning.

------
brainstew
Here is an ITU blog post responding to press criticism on the WCIT-12
conference: [http://itu4u.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/the-real-work-
starts-a...](http://itu4u.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/the-real-work-starts-after-
wcit/)

------
hyphyphyph
Most shallow comment... but what's the font they're using for freeandopen ?

~~~
steerpike
'Open sans' apparently. <http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Open+Sans>

~~~
lbotos
Open sans is the body copy, not the hashtag text. My wild guess is something
from the Droid/Droid Sans family.

~~~
aes256
Looks like a custom font based on GarageFonts' Metroflex Narrow:
[http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/garagefonts/metroflex-
narrow/ob...](http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/garagefonts/metroflex-narrow/obl/)

------
slaven
The page is completely broken on desktop Safari without Flash installed. Kinda
ironic: <http://cl.ly/image/1M233A072M06>

~~~
magicalist
Leaving aside the fact that a "free and open internet" doesn't preclude
plugins that receive and transmit data via the internet (the opposite, in
fact), it looks fine in Safari here. It uses the HTML5 youtube player instead
of the Flash one, but it does the layout just fine. Maybe you have an old
version of Safari?

------
wildgift
I'm not sure what it's about, but here's the ITU website: <http://www.itu.int>

------
zaknanny
did anyone else notice one of the thing they said on the what's at stake page?
I think this my be their hidden motivation for doing this.

"Other proposals would require services like YouTube, Facebook, and Skype to
pay new tolls in order to reach people across borders."

~~~
lwf
Yes, which makes innovation sad.

------
TommyDANGerous
Signed up, power to the free people.

~~~
ommunist
You just gave a little more power to Google.

~~~
lloeki
Possibly, but this is a matter of who you trust more. Dare I say many people
don't quite trust governments on doing the "right thing" for the Internet.

~~~
wildgift
Unfortunately. However, to trust a company is very risky, for obvious reasons.

------
Claudus
I like the way the ITU handshaking graphic is casting a shadow over top of the
world.

------
jmcejuela
So I believe they mention that 42 governments apply censorship. Which are
these governments??

------
owencm
I just added a Slant for this topic so we can collaboratively explain both
sides: [http://slant.co/topics/is-google-s-freeandopen-internet-
camp...](http://slant.co/topics/is-google-s-freeandopen-internet-campaign-
simply-an-attempt-to-defend-their-busness-model/opinions/yes)

------
aszantu
nice try, google

