<nettime> G8 vs INTERNET--call for creative action

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

http://g8internet.com/

G8 vs INTERNET

Our imaginations help us protect our rights and a free Internet

call for creative action
Everyone is invited to send URIs web addresses of any bits of  
expression produced in answer to this call to submit@g8internet.com.

The Internet is the place where we meet, speak, create, educate  
ourselves and organize. However, as we are at a turning point in early  
web history, it could either become a prime tool for improving our  
societies, knowledge and culture, or a totalitarian tool of  
suveillance and control.

After 15 years of fighting the sharing of culture in the name of an  
obsolete copyright regime, governments of the World are uniting to  
control and censor the Internet. The black-out of the Egyptian Net,  
the US government’s reaction to Wikileaks, the adoption of website  
blocking mechanisms in Europe, or the plans for “Internet kill  
switches”[1] are all major threats on our freedom of expression and  
communication. These threats come from corporations and politicians,  
unsettled by the advent of the Internet.

As a host of the G8, France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to step  
up centralized control over the Internet. He has convened world  
leaders to a summit aimed at working towards a “civilized Internet”, a  
concept he borrowed from the Chinese government. By creating fears  
such as “cyber-terrorism”, their objective is to generalize rules of  
exception in order to establish censorship and control, thereby  
undermining free speech and other civil liberties.

They will package this policy using words like “democracy” and  
“responsibility”, but look at their acts. Sarkozy has already enabled  
disconnection of citizens from the Internet and the censorship of  
online content in France.

The Internet allows us to express our opinions universally. The  
Internet unites us and makes us strong. It is a space in which the  
common civilisation of our diverse planet meets. Our imaginations,  
through all kinds of media we create and publish, help us protect our  
rights and a free Internet. As world leaders gather at the end of this  
month, we must all come together and use our creativity to reject any  
attempt at turning the Internet into a tool of repression and control.


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