‘Internet Defense League’ Comes Out Against ITU

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The Internet Defense League, a loose affiliation of Web companies that formed over the summer  including Mozilla and advocacy groups such as Fight For the Future (which spearheaded the fight against the SOPA anti-piracy bill), has sent out an email attempting to rally its supporters to sign a petition against an upcoming United Nations summit to discuss new regulations of the Internet, the World Conference on International Communications 2012 (WCIT-12), hosted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Separately, Google launched its own campaign against the conference. Here is the text of the Internet Defense League’s email in full:

Dear IDL member,

 

We’re writing to tell you about a serious threat to Internet freedom, and invite you to take part in an action this Monday, December 3rd.

 

In short, an obscure international meeting next week could give a top-down, non-transparent UN body (one with representation from many dictatorships) the power to regulate the Internet. It’s called the ITU.

 

The ITU would literally give dictators like Syria’s Assad (who was trending yesterday for–it seems–cutting Syria off from the Internet) a role in crucial decisions about the Internet’s future.

 

You can learn more here: http://internetcoup.org/ (scroll down for a video and background reading).

 

Remember– it’s up to you whether or not to participate; those who have installed the “all future campaigns” code will participate by default. The widget for this action lets your visitors email and call the ITU delegations in their country. You can preview its style and functionality on internetcoup.org.

 

We’re still working on the widget code itself. For now you can install the “All campaigns” code here, and this will activate on Monday Dec. 3rd: http://members.internetdefenseleague.org

 

Finally, we’d like to invite you to take the first steps to building a country-by-country presence for the IDL. The goal? Independent IDL’s with the ability to mobilize users in every country in the world, both for domestic and international campaigns. If you’re interested in organizing an IDL in your country contact us: team@fightforthfuture.org

 

And please share this page with your contacts in as many countries as possible: http://internetdefenseleague.org/international

Thanks. Sincerely,
Holmes Wilson – Internet Defense League

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