Over 100,000 tell TPP leaders to reject Internet censorship at Bali summit starting Monday

October 3, 2013– Citizens across the trans-Pacific region are speaking up in huge numbers to tell their elected leaders to say no to Internet censorship at upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations at the APEC summit in Indonesia. They’re participating in a rapidly growing online campaign organized by OpenMedia, with support from Roots Action and Fight for the Future.

Over 100,000 citizens have now sent TPP leaders a clear message to reject the extreme Internet censorship proposals contained in leaked drafts of the TPP. Experts say the secretive proposals, which are being pushed for behind closed doors by large, outdated U.S. conglomerates, could see whole families kicked off the Internet. TPP leaders are set to meet in Bali, Indonesia in just a few days to finalize the deal. In under a week, 100,342 people have told TPP leaders to:

• Protect the right of everyone to access the Internet in their daily lives.
• Do not force ISPs to act as “Internet Police” monitoring our Internet use, censoring content, and removing whole websites.
• Preserve the democratic rights of sovereign countries to draft their own copyright laws.

Executive Director of OpenMedia Steve Anderson said: “Our small team here at OpenMedia was absolutely delighted when we hit the 100k mark earlier this morning. We’ve never seen a campaign grow this fast - and the numbers just keep on climbing. It’s going viral as thousands spread the word about the TPP on social media. We even hit the front of Reddit which nearly crashed our servers.” Anderson continued: “This remarkable milestone speaks to the huge groundswell of concern about the secretive and extreme Internet censorship proposals in the TPP. It’s time for elected leaders to wake up and listen to citizens, not just old media lobbyists who are trying to shore up their failing, last-century business model.”

Citizens are continuing to speak up in huge numbers right now at https://openmedia.org/censorship

About OpenMedia

OpenMedia is a network of people and organizations working to safeguard the possibilities of the open Internet. We work toward informed and participatory digital policy.

About the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement:

The TPP is one of the most far-reaching international free trade agreements in history. We know from leaked TPP draft texts that participating nations would be bound to much stricter and more extreme copyright laws than now exist under current national laws. These new rules would criminalize much online activity, invade citizens’ privacy, and significantly impact our ability to share and collaborate online.

Negotiators from 12 of the TPP negotiating nations—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States—met in Malaysia to discuss these changes without input from the public, creators, or most businesses. The negotiating documents are classified—unless you are one of just 600 industry lobbyists permitted to participate. TPP meetings took place in Malaysia from July 15th to the 24th.

Negotiators have indicated that they are in the “home stretch”, with leaders of the participating countries expecting a resolution sometime in October. However, reports have indicated that the intellectual property provisions have been quite a “challenging” issue for those behind the agreement.

Over 15,000 people have now signed a petition at http://OurFairDeal.org, which demands that negotiators reject copyright proposals that would restrict the open Internet, access to knowledge, economic opportunity and our fundamental rights. Internet users around the world are beginning to layout their own crowdsourced vision for copyright policy at: https://OpenMedia.org/DigitalFuture.

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Contact

David Christopher

Communications Coordinator, OpenMedia

1-778-232-1858

[email protected]

More information

• In August 2013, OpenMedia and the Our Fair Deal Coalition launched an alternative process to the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, enabling citizens to have their say on shaping their digital future.
• In May 2013, OpenMedia and Coalition partners sent TPP Trade Ministers a letter to demand a ‘Fair Deal’ on provisions that would restrict Internet use in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks.
• We also sent a message to new U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman by purchasing a hard-hitting Washington D.C. newspaper ad.
• In December 2012, OpenMedia’s Steve Anderson took our message direct to TPP negotiators in Auckland. Read his full report from Auckland here.
• In June 2012, OpenMedia joined with a diverse coalition of groups to launch the StopTheTrap.net petition - a petition which gained over 135,000 signatures and which was hand-delivered to TPP negotiators in San Diego.