
Facebook and Google launch lobbying group, The Internet Association - curthopkins
http://www.dailydot.com/news/internet-association-lobbying-group/
======
tokenadult
It would be refreshing if this industry group took a firm stand against the
Great Firewall of China and other national government efforts to censor the
Internet. I wonder if that is part of their agenda, as is implied by the main
page headings?

I tried to look up the privacy platform page, but got a

502 Bad Gateway

error just now. They evidently still have both reliability and usability
issues to fix on the association's own website before they go out to make the
world a better place.

AFTER EDIT:

Oh, okay, when I go to the Protecting Internet Freedom page

[http://internetassociation.org/policy-platform/protecting-
in...](http://internetassociation.org/policy-platform/protecting-internet-
freedom/)

I see a statement that the association supports

"policies that protect and promote Internet freedom – information should flow
freely across national borders, uninhibited by tariffs, regulations and
government censorship that are fundamentally inconsistent with the
transnational, free and decentralized nature of the Internet. To preserve the
Internet’s role as a conduit for free expression, Internet intermediaries must
not be held liable for the speech and activity of Internet users."

Opposing censorship is one of my causes, so so far, so good.

~~~
enraged_camel
>> _information should flow freely across national borders, uninhibited by
tariffs, regulations and government censorship_

Funny that they qualify it as _government_ censorship. Because everyone knows
that Facebook will censor the crap out of anything they find objectionable.
Just a week ago they banned a cartoon of Adam and Eve because it contained
nipples. <http://tinyurl.com/d5tqnhk>

~~~
aethr
It isn't a violation of free speech for a private publisher or forum to deny
you publishing rights on their platform.

Facebook is a private playground. They are allowed complete discretion over
what they allow and don't allow on their private network, and this isn't a
problem because you can stop using it at any time.

It is much harder to "stop using" your country of citizenship, which is why
many people feel that governments should be held to a much higher standard of
openness, accountability and freedom.

~~~
enraged_camel
That's true from a legal standpoint, but it's still a double standard in
principles.

edit: again, not sure why people are downvoting without explaining why.

~~~
dantheman
I want you to be able to say whatever you'd like no matter how horrible
without fear of government censorship; however, I will not let you use my
printing press, blog, etc to do it.

There is nothing inconsistent with this.

~~~
enraged_camel
>>I want you to be able to say whatever you'd like no matter how horrible
without fear of government censorship; however, I will not let you use my
printing press, blog, etc to do it.

That sounds too much like the number one cited reason against net neutrality:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality#Arguments_ag...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality#Arguments_against_network_neutrality)

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mayneack
Nothing really specific yet on their platform regarding patent law. I'm pretty
curious where they'll come out on that.

[http://internetassociation.org/policy-platform/fostering-
inn...](http://internetassociation.org/policy-platform/fostering-innovation-
and-economic-growth/)

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tsycho
It's not just Facebook and Google.

"The IA’s founding membership consists of Google, Facebook, eBay, Rackspace,
Zynga, IAC, TripAdvisor, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Monster Worldwide, salesforce.com,
AOL, and Expedia."

~~~
notatoad
So what big name internet companies aren't a part of this? I notice there's no
microsoft, anybody else?

~~~
mtgx
I guess Microsoft doens't think of itself as an "Internet company", and
they've often been on the other side of bills such as SOPA, etc, at least
before the backlash.

~~~
fruchtose
It makes sense if you consider where their main revenues come from: Windows
and Office, desktop products. Windows 8 features tighter integration with
Internet services, but by and large they are firmly rooted in the idea that
your desktop should be doing computation locally. The minute Microsoft calls
itself an Internet company is the day that desktop software goes the way of
the dinosaur.

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tobylane
It's more of a 'stop our users words making us suable' rather than 'don't
curtail our users rights, especially free speech' effort, but I can't think of
any serious differences. There will be some.

~~~
nickpinkston
I'm guessing data portability and privacy stuff can be reframed as stealing
IP, anti-business, etc.

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mayneack
This website is hard to look at. It feels like someone was just throwing cool
features together without any sort of continuity.

<http://internetassociation.org/>

~~~
insickness
Those random little dots floating around make it difficult to read the text.

~~~
luke_s
Actually, they feel like flies or insects crawling all over the page. Its just
something about the way they move. Not a good look!

Also from a design perspective they are really bad. You want people to be
reading the text, not focusing on the dots.

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hereonbusiness
So essentially they let themselves get blackmailed by the US government.
Campaign donations all around!

I think that this was the actual goal of legislation like SOPA and PIPA, make
the "internet industry" pay up by threatening to threaten their business
model. It doesn't seem likely to me that they would really risk seriously
damaging a largely US based multi-billion dollar industry, but Google,
Facebook and Co. decided to play it safe.

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languagehacker
It's good to see Facebook and Google working together on something positive.
Probably going to end up doing more lobbying than advocacy. The same thing
happened to AARP, so that's just an inevitably of American advocacy groups, I
think.

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PuerkitoBio
There is a need for such lobbying, but it should be led by individuals as
citizens (an international asociation), not by companies with varying degrees
of interests.

Still, it's better than nothing (no godaddy in the association, I see!). I do
believe Google mostly fights for a free, uncensored web, though once a
conflict arises, between shareholders and freedom, as with any company,
shareholders always win.

~~~
tatsuke95
> _"There is a need for such lobbying, but it should be led by individuals as
> citizens"_

Agreed. Unfortunately, getting people to take uniform political action on
anything is difficult, whereas companies can have a political mandate (and the
money to support it).

P.S. If anyone wants to to learn a little bit about the lobbying industry,
check out _Turkmeniscam_ by Ken Silverstein. It's a short read, but eye-
opening.

[http://www.amazon.com/Turkmeniscam-Washington-Lobbyists-
Stal...](http://www.amazon.com/Turkmeniscam-Washington-Lobbyists-Stalinist-
Dictatorship/dp/140006743X)

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Flam
While this does seem like a generally great initiative and idea, I can't help
but feel like WW3 or WW4 will be fought between tech companies. Hopefully this
is much less prediction and more science fiction plot.

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kmfrk
As long as they aren't lobbying against the FTC and privacy regulation, it
sounds great.

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asax
This is a good thing, right?

~~~
logn
Probably for a few decades until these companies lose competitiveness and
regain it through legislation.

~~~
prawks
I hadn't thought about this, but it's a great point. They certainly have the
money to influence politics in many ways, not all of which may be good.

While this may be a step forward in the fight against SOPA-style bills, this
is a huge step backwards in the fight to take money out of politics.

------
Fando
Hallelujah!

