June 2010

[Commentary] The definitive battle for the future of the Internet is underway.

On June 17, the Federal Communications Commission moved to reclaim its authority over broadband Internet service; a federal court had overturned FCC action - using a weaker telecom rule - to prevent abusive practices by broadband providers. The FCC's move is also critical for the implementation of the National Broadband Plan, which Congress last year ordered the FCC to draft to address the growing disparities in broadband access, adoption, and affordability.

This future-of-broadband decision will be made by our government. Those who reduce this historic and complex decision to simple slogans - such as "Keep the government's hands off the Internet" - would perpetuate our dependency on the cable and telephone conglomerates, which used an act of government to gain control of broadband in 2002! Will our government rule this time in favor of Wall Street or Main Street? The answer to this question is in our hands.

In a show of support for President Barack Obama's memorandum on making more spectrum available for commercial use, Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) will author a bill to give additional guidance in the release of the spectrum.

In a statement he said, "I will soon introduce a bill in Congress to free up 500 MHz of spectrum and look forward to working with the Administration on this issue, which is so vital to the future of our country."

A report released on Tuesday translates for the first time redacted portions of China's Internet policy guide, the authors of the translation say.

The redacted portions are "most revelatory of the [government's] official ideological vision and plans for controlling the Internet," according to the report, published by Human Rights in China (HRIC), a group that advocates against China's censorship policies. According to the HRIC translation, one of the redacted portions discusses blocking harmful content from overseas. "We will perfect our system to monitor harmful information on the Internet, and strengthen the blocking of harmful information from outside China, to effectively prevent it from being disseminated in China through the Internet," it reads. Another redacted piece looks at how the government can use the Internet for propaganda purposes. "Government agencies at all levels and in all regions have gradually built mechanisms to guide public opinion through integrating the functions of propaganda departments and actual work departments, integrating online media and traditional media, and integrating major news websites and commercial websites," the paper says. The redacted lines also demonstrate the country's aspirations on cloud computing. "At present, there's a popular saying in the Internet industry: 'Whoever seized that cloud will control the future,' " a redacted portion states.

On June 30, Facebook unveiled new controls designed to give users more control over how they share information with third-party applications.

The majority of Facebook users interact with third-party applications on the site, some of which require permission to capture a user's profile information. Additionally, many websites accept Facebook login information as validation to comment or post content. Spokesman Andrew Noyes said there are currently 550,000 active applications on the Facebook and more than a million websites integrated into the platform. The company's chief technology officer Bret Taylor announced the changes on the company's blog and said applications must now ask before accessing a user's private information. They must also specify which private content the application will access; profile information made public may still be accessed without notification. "These improvements reflect two core Facebook beliefs: first, your data belongs to you; second, it should be easy to control what you share," Taylor writes. "If at any point you ask a developer to remove the data you've granted them access to, we require that that they delete this information."