What every policy maker needs to know about the internet

The Internet today is a technology of freedom and innovation. In less than two
decades it has become a powerful, global platform for commerce, human
development and democratic participation. This growth did not happen in a legal
vacuum. From the outset, the Internet has been enabled by a policy framework
suited to its unique technical architecture. Misguided policies could just as easily
stifle the Internetʼs continued expansion. Increasingly, despite the Internetʼs
success, the policy principles that supported its growth are being challenged.
The successful policy framework for the Internet emphasized openness, competition,
innovation, consumer choice, and freedom of expression. For example, while ISPs
themselves were relatively unregulated, they benefited from an open platform that
was based on telecommunications policies of interconnection and non‐discrimination.
Early on, the Supreme Court ruled that the Internet was entitled to the strongest form
of First Amendment free speech protection. Congress expressly decided that Web
hosting services and ISPs should not be liable for the content created by others.
Recognizing the importance of privacy, in 1986 Congress updated laws on
government surveillance to require court orders for access to data communications,
just as they had been required for telephone taps.
In recent years, policymakers seem to have forgotten what makes the Internet
special. Increasingly, policy proposals treat the Internet as a problem to be solved
rather than a valuable resource that must be supported. Debates over objectionable
content online, protecting intellectual property, preventing terrorism, or restructuring
telecommunications policy seem to have lost sight of the Internetʼs history and its
architecture. We are seeing an increasing number of heavy‐handed policy proposals
that place the Internetʼs core characteristics at risk. Standing alone or in conjunction
with marketplace and technological changes, these policies could fundamentally alter
the very elements of the Internet that have made it so successful.