New framework for an open Internet agreed at OECD

OECD governments and other stakeholders have created a new framework to promote a more transparent, open Internet. The new principles, agreed by OECD member governments, business representatives and technical experts, aim to advance the debate on Internet governance:

• Promote and protect the global free flow of information
• Promote the open, distributed and interconnected nature of the Internet
• Promote investment and competition in high speed networks and services
• Promote and Enable the Cross-Border Delivery of Services
• Encourage multi-stakeholder co-operation in policy development processes
• Foster voluntarily developed codes of conduct
• Develop capacities to bring publicly available, reliable data into the policy-making process
• Ensure transparency, fair process, and accountability
• Strengthen consistency and effectiveness in privacy protection at a global level
• Maximize individual empowerment
• Promote Creativity and Innovation
• Limit Internet intermediary liability
• Encourage co-operation to promote Internet security and
• Give appropriate priority to enforcement efforts

They underline the benefits that today’s light-touch, flexible regulation has brought in driving innovation and economic growth. This model, which includes governments, business, civil society and the technical community in a so-called multi-stakeholder approach, has been key to the Internet’s rapid growth and impact. “The Internet has achieved global interconnection without the development of any international regulatory regime. The development of such a formal regulatory regime could risk undermining its growth,” according to the communiqué.