Nick Lewis: The Blog

A bill just introduced in the House seeks to destroy the dream of universal, affordable Internet access everywhere. “Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act” (H.R. 2726) makes it unlawful for a community to provide any “telecommunications service, information service or cable service." In otherwords, if your community decided to provide free internet access to all citizens, telecom will sue your ass.

"Hands off that Internet, ye peasents!"

The five recommendations of Reporters Without Borders about freedom of expression on the Internet:

1. Any law about the flow of information online must be anchored in freedom of expression as defined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
2. Internet users alone must decide what material they can and wish to access online. Automatic filtering of online content, by governments or private firms, is unacceptable.