3 Reasons Why Elected Officials Should Endorse the Declaration of Internet FreedomTrevor Timm Still, many observers have remarked that, despite the protests effectiveness, the result was a fluke. It was a perfect storm of companies and people coming together that could not be replicated, theyve said, and nothing has really changed. But at least three post-SOPA events in the last six months tell a different story: that the protection of digital civil liberties is a central issue to many voters. And theres an easy way for 2012 candidates to let voters know they share that concern: sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom. 1. The Death of ACTA in the EU Almost immediately after the successful SOPA blackout, protests organically sprung up around the world opposing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a restrictive intellectual property treaty that was negotiated in almost complete secrecy. While most of the negotiating countries had already signed ACTA, citizens of Europeinspired by the American reaction to SOPAstarted raising the alarm online and took to the streets by the tens of thousands. This public outrage not only signaled disappointment in the extremist IP policies, but was also a rejection of the secretive, government-directed process that spawned the agreement in the first place. 2. Removal of a backdoor SOPA provision in CISPA The debate surrounding CISPA, the Houses dangerous cybersecurity bill, also showed the new strength of the Internets collective voice. An early version of the bill contained a clause regardingthe theft of intellectual property that could have legalized measures similar to SOPA. But when the comparisons hit the media, Rep. Rogers was so desperate to get rid of the SOPA moniker, he took the IP clause completely out of a bill. This is an important sea change in the way Congress has approached copyright. In the past, restrictive intellectual property clauses have been put into bills to get support. Now Congress is finding out they have to take IP clauses out just to avoid having bills collapse. While the House regrettably voted to pass the bill in May, a protest in the bills last week of debate led to an explosion of opposition. When co-sponsors started switching their votes to oppose CISPA, Rep. Mike Rogers was forced to move the vote up a day just to get the bill through. And the results of the protest can now be felt in the Senate, where their just-released version of the cybersecurity bill fixes many of the privacy problems found in CISPA. You can contact your Senators here to tell them to support the new privacy amendments. 3. No More Data Retention Bill Another bill Internet activists immediately set their eyes on post-SOPA was a mandatory data retention bill disguised as the The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act, pushed by SOPA author Lamar Smith. The original version of this bill mandated ISPs retain all sorts of information on every Internet usereven those never accused of a crimefor law enforcement to access without court oversight. Rep. Zoe Lofgren remarked it should be renamed, The Keep Every Americans Digital Data for Submission to the Federal Government Without a Warrant Act. After the SOPA protests, Rep. Smith scaled back the bill to force ISPs to only keep IP addresses for a yeara less draconian measure, yet still a huge privacy violation. But in the newest version of the bill, Smith, perhaps fearful of another Internet backlash, completely removed the data retention provision. Of course, as we stated when we first explained the importance of the Declaration, the Internet is winning more battles, but we havent won the war. Congress is still attempting to pass several bills that would have restrictive effects on ordinary users Internet freedom, and that means we need to hold their feet to the fire throughout this campaign season. Step one: Ask candidates for office in 2012 to help us protect our Internet and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom. In addition, Free Press is encouraging everyone to hold an Internet BBQ this summer to discuss the Declaration and spread the word among your friends. You can also join the new Internet Defense League, which aims to act as an early warning system for new threats to Internet freedom. You can support this information by voting on Reddit HERE linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 