France attempts to "civilize" the Internet; Internet fights back

For some time, French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy has talked about his dream of a “civilized” Internet, but this dream has long been a nightmare for those who worry that “civilization” is really a code for “regulations favorable to big business and the national security state.” To make his vision a reality, Sarkozy helped to create this week's e-G8 meeting currently underway in the Tuileries Gardens next door to the Louvre—and the critics are fuming.

"I was invited to the e-G8 and declined," said author and activist Cory Doctorow recently. "I believe it's a whitewash, an attempt to get people who care about the Internet to lend credibility to regimes that are in all-out war with the free, open 'Net. On the other hand, I now have a dandy handwriting sample from Sarkozy should I ever need to establish a graphological baseline for narcissistic sociopathy."

Internet governance and civil society groups issued a statement charging that the "e-G8 Forum is organized by large Industry with access given only to industry and government actors… Big businesses already have a disproportionately large influence on public policy processes. For governments to sanction a dedicated meeting with top G8 leaders and officials to plan the global agenda for Internet related policies is inappropriate."

The French Internet activists at La Quadrature du Net have been even tougher. Governments "have entered an alliance with some of these companies, united in the fear of the new capabilities afforded to individuals by the Internet and computers," said spokesperson Jérémie Zimmermann.

So when Sarkozy took the stage of the e-G8 this morning, suspicions about his true motives were already rampant. And he did little to dispel them.

François Revol

Be reasonable

It took Sarkozy only minutes to go from extolling the "third globalization" brought about by Internet companies—after the Age of Exploration and the Industrial Revolution—to delivering a parental lecture about "responsibility."

"You have a tremendous responsibility that weighs upon you," he told the assembled luminaries, who included people like Google's Eric Schmidt, and he demanded that Internet companies join national governments to jointly exercise the responsibilities. “The responsibility has to be shared between you and us.”

In Sarkozy's view, the dominant need right now is for control over this amazing, but rambunctious, resource we call the Internet. A few samples provide the overall flavor:

• "Although technology in and of itself is neutral, and must remain so, the way that Internet is used is not neutral."
• "The universe that you represent is not a parallel universe which is free of rules of law or ethics or of any of the fundamental principles that must govern and do govern the social lives of our democratic states."
• "Don't forget that behind the anonymous Internet user there is a real citizen living in a real society and a real culture and a nation to which he or she belongs, with its laws and its rules."
• Artists "must not be despoiled of the fruit of their talent. That doesn't simply ruin them, but far worse, it enslaves them."
• Governments "wish to enter into dialogue with you so that we can defend one another's interests."
• "[I am] calling for collective responsibility."
• "What I am calling for is for everyone to be reasonable."

But "reasonable" turns out to be a contested idea. So does "civilized." Sarkozy made clear that his top concerns at the moment involve intellectual property (Internet companies must not "contribute to drying up this cultural wealth") and monopolies (some Internet companies have set up "empires"), apparently code for companies like Google.

France is famous for passing the world's toughest three strikeslaw against alleged Internet copyright infringers. As the European Digital Rights group notes French politicians use that law to bill themselves as the "world's pioneer of the civilized Internet."

Secondarily, Sarkozy called for better privacy protections—and not just for citizens in the face of rampant online tracking and data collection. No, people must be free to "lead their lives in peace," a cryptic comment that might indicate support for regulation preventing the Internet publication about facts regarding people's "private lives."

As e-G8 organizer, the ad mogul Maurice Lévy summed it up today, saying, "How can we go further? How, too, can we be even more respectful of the rights of others—their intellectual creations and their private lives?" (France's national data and privacy regulator, CNIL, did lament today that the e-G8 didn't go further by hosting sessions on things like the "right to be forgotten.")

The conference, which was suggested by Sarkozy but privately funded by companies like Orange, Google, eBay, Microsoft, HP, and more, concludes tomorrow.