The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has in a new research report criticised the growing curtailment of internet freedom. The OSCE calls internet access a human right, and net neutrality is necessary.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a new report released, in which the organization’s internet freedom under the microscope. The report focuses on four areas: access, regulation on internet content, blocking or filtering of content and liability of isps. The data of the report in the course of 2010 collected.
The OSCE calls internet access a human right, and subscribes to this conclusion, that the human rights Council of the United Nations at the beginning of June went. In most countries, there was internet access under the right to information and communication. Finland is this positive, because every Finnish citizen since July 2010 are entitled to an internet connection with a bandwidth of 1 megabit per second.
About regulations on internet content contstateerde the OSCE that the majority of member states, no specific laws have to be on the internet things like racism, terrorism, slander, and child pornography, to prohibit. The internet is here under existing laws, that for all the media of application. According to the report, this need not be a problem, provided that the laws keep in mind that the internet is a different kind of medium. Especially in the field of racism and defamation shoot legislators often lack in the to make clear definitions, says the OSCE.
Further, the OSCE is of the opinion that there is too easy to block websites is seized, and that this only should happen if there is a court order available. Also kinderpornofilters that providers voluntarily enter a proposal in the Netherlands have been shot down, according to the OSCE dubious. The lack of transparency or a legal obligation to filter can, despite good intentions, mean that such a filter is contrary to various human rights.
The report calls it worrisome that 80 percent of the countries that take part in the study, there are no rules for net neutrality. In the Netherlands net neutrality since the end of June included in the telecommunications act. Also, sabelt, the report of the ‘three strikes’-law down; the shut down of internet access due to, for example, copyright infringement is, according to the OSCE, a disproportionately high penalty, because it is at odds with the recognition of internet access as a human right. The same objection goes for internet’kill switches’ that internet access in a whole country can flatten.
Finally, it takes the report to the liability of providers and other parties under the microscope. Most of the European OSCE member states have to do this, the Electronic Commerce Directive was implemented, which provides ‘notice and takedown’procedures. Most providers, however, would content immediately remove, upon receipt of a notice, and rarely object.