Scaling up together to meet the threats to the open Internet

From the beginning the Internet has always been about us; those who use the Internet to connect with one another, to create, to express ourselves, and to make our lives just a little bit easier. We’ve been successful in standing up to lobbyists who act to restrict Internet freedom in their drive to prop up outdated governance and business models- our Stop the Meter (infographic) and Stop Online Spying campaigns are great examples of what Canadians can achieve when we work together.

From the beginning the Internet has always been about us; those who use the Internet to connect with one another, to create, to express ourselves, and to make our lives just a little bit easier. We’ve been successful in standing up to lobbyists who act to restrict Internet freedom in their drive to prop up outdated governance and business models- our Stop the Meter (infographic) and Stop Online Spying campaigns are great examples of what Canadians can achieve when we work together.

Increasingly at OpenMedia.ca, we’re realizing that, while we're waging and sometimes winning battles in Canada, the war on the Internet is global. Case in point: we successfully fought back against some of the most anti-Internet provisions in the copyright bill passed by the government earlier this year, but now those provisions are being reintroduced in an international trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, that our government is determined to sign.

We're working with global partners—like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), FreePress, Public Knowledge, New Zealand’s InternetNZ, and Chilean group Derechos Digitales—to stop this Internet trap before it's too late, but we realize we need more than just a campaign. We need capacity devoted to ensuring that battles won in Canada are true wins. We can’t put all our energy into stop-gap measures at home and craft a positive vision for our digital economy while our digital rights are eroded abroad by lobbyists and un-elected trade representatives working in almost total secrecy.

That's why we are taking a massive step to launch the OpenMedia International beta website.

What we need you to know:

1. We will still be on the front lines to defend the Internet in Canada. StopTheTrap.net and OpenMedia International are about ensuring that citizens here at home are truly empowered to decide how the Internet evolves—how it remains a force for national and global connection.
2. The pro-Internet community (that’s you reading this) can only get stronger by becoming an international movement, able to meet the challenges to the open Internet wherever they arise.

We’re starting this project through the creation of a new social-media infused website that will be a hub for rallying citizens around the world, and providing the international pro-Internet movement with a platform to pressure leaders everywhere. When attacks on our digital future go global, we will be able to respond with a coordinated effort. You’ve helped us develop our past tools from our letter-to-the-editor tool, to our pro-Internet candidates resource and so much more. Your contributions can make this new site everything it could be, so if you haven’t yet please do consider chipping into our donation drive now.

This is a pivotal and thrilling moment for the pro-Internet movement. Something is changing: groups and people around the world are noticeably more motivated to come together and cooperate across national borders. The Internet has made us aware of the value of global connection; we’re hopeful that we can come together globally to defend it from increasingly secretive, large-scale, anti-democratic threats. Anti-Internet lobbyists would like to trap us in the past, but the pro-Internet movement is coming together around the world to assert our rights to an open, fair, and stable digital future.

The possibilities of the open Internet become crystal clear when we look at them through a global lens. We hope the OpenMedia international hub will help the pro-Internet community speaks up for the possibilities of the Internet, crafting a connected future with an open, affordable, surveillance-free Internet for all.

As the amplifiers of your voices, your core team members here at OpenMedia have been excited to feel this global movement starting to take shape. And we’re so excited to have you join us as we get started at: http://openmedianow.net.

For the Internet!

Reilly, Lindsey, Steve on behalf of your OpenMedia team