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News, Policy

Open Letter to EU Commissioner-designate: Preserving the Open Internet

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Date: 29 October 2024

Addressed to Commissioner-designate Henna Virkkunen

Expresses concerns about undermining net neutrality principles in Europe

Urges the European Commission to avoid interfering in the Internet’s interconnection ecosystem

Highlights risks of proposals mandating payments from Content and Application Providers (CAPs) to telecom operators:

  • Potential market fragmentation
  • Increased costs for consumers and businesses
  • Degraded service quality

Emphasises the importance of maintaining a balanced market with equal bargaining power

Calls for evidence-based recommendations to support an open Internet

Warns that regulatory interventions could harm the global Internet and its users

Signed by various organizations and individuals advocating for net neutrality – including Internet Society UK England

https://www.internetsociety.org/open-letters/preserving-the-open-internet… Read more ...

News

Joint submission of response to OFCOM consultation on Child Safety

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The UK Chapter of the Internet Society produced a Joint Submission with the Internet Society responding to the OFCOM Consultation: Protecting children from harms online

The response, filed on 17 July 2024, reiterates the points made in past submissions to UK consultations conducted by OFCOM but also in relation to the various legislation that went through Parliament in the first part of the year. In particular, the response reiterate that End-to-end encryption (“E2EE”) is needed to safeguard privacy of data including the safety of children.… Read more ...

News, Policy

Joint submission of Evidence to House of Commons Public Bill Committee

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The Internet Society, Internet Society UK Chapter and Access Now have made a joint submission to the call for evidence made by the House of Commons Public Bill Committee which is going to consider the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill.

This joint submission was sent on 7 March 2024.

The Bill, “A Bill to amend the Investigatory Powers Act 2016; to make provision about information supplied by, or relating to, the Judicial Commissioners; and for connected purposes.” was unusually started in the House of Lords before undergoing Stages in the House of Commons.… Read more ...

News, Policy

Joint submission of Evidence to Joint Committee on Human Rights

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The UK Chapter has made a joint submission with the Internet Society in response to the call for evidence that was published by the Joint Committee on Human Rights regarding the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) is a Parliamentary Joint Committee whose main function is to examine all bills and legislative instruments for compatibility with human rights, and to report to both Houses of Parliament on its findings.

The Joint Submission can be found here:

Internet-Society_call-for-evidence_IPA-1Download

The deadline for submitting evidence was Monday 22 January 2024.… Read more ...

News

Joint Briefing on Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill [HL]

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The UK England Chapter of the Internet Society has joined the Internet Society as well as Big Brother Watch, The Open Rights Group, Privacy International, Liberty and Rights & Security International in drafting a briefing that was distributed to Lords prior to the Report Hearing at the House of Lords on 23 January 2024.

The original Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA) is highly controversial in that it authorised massive, suspicionless surveillance on a scale never seen before, with few safeguards or independent oversight.… Read more ...

News, Policy

Joint statement of scientists and NGOs on the EU’s proposed eIDAS reform

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On 2 November 2023, the Internet Society UK Chapter has joined 500 cyber security experts, researchers and NGOs to sign an open letter sounding the alarm about the European Union’s proposed eIDAS reform.

After years of legislative process, the near-final text of the eIDAS regulation has been agreed by trialogue negotiators1 representing EU’s key bodies and will be presented to the public and parliament for a rubber stamp before the end of the year. New legislative articles, introduced in recent closed-door meetings and not yet public, envision that all web browsers distributed in Europe will be required to trust the certificate authorities and cryptographic keys selected by EU governments.… Read more ...

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