U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says cybersecurity concerns do not justify a government takeover of the Internet, and that there are ways of protecting the public while also preserving free speech. He spoke at the London Conference on Cyberspace November 1.

By Stephen Kaufman | Staff Writer | 02 November 2011

Washington — Addressing a conference in London that is meeting to discuss how to make the Internet more secure, Vice President Biden said a proposed “international legal instrument” to govern the Web would stifle free speech and the ability of people all over the world to interact as they choose.

“What citizens do online should not, as some have suggested, be decreed solely by groups of governments making decisions for them somewhere on high,” Biden told delegates to the London Conference on Cyberspace November 1.

“No citizen of any country should be subject to a repressive global code when they send an email or post a comment to a news article. They should not be prevented from sharing their innovations with global consumers simply because they live across a national frontier. That’s not how the Internet should ever work in our view — not if we want it to remain the space where economic, political and social exchanges can flourish,” he said in remarks delivered by video teleconference.

According to press reports, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have called for the United Nations to set an international code of conduct for the use of information technologies, arguing that it would help ensure cybersecurity. But Biden said the United States supports the existing Convention on Cybercrime. He argued that the proposed code “would lead to exclusive government control over Internet resources, institutions and content and national barriers on the free flow of information online.”

The code of conduct “would lead to a fragmented Internet, one that does not connect people but divides them; a stagnant cyberspace, not an innovative one; and ultimately a less secure cyberspace with less trust among nations,” he said.

Over the next 10 years, more than 5 billion people, mainly in developing countries, will be joining the 2 billion who are already online, Biden noted. He said everyone should be able to use the Internet “without fear of being targeted by criminals or having their private information exposed or being punished by their governments for expressing their views online.”

There are ways of protecting people from cybercrimes and punishing those who commit crimes online “without resorting to a false solution that rationalizes government takeover of the Internet,” he said.

The United States is investing in cybersecurity and working with other countries to help them build up their own law enforcement capabilities in a manner that protects fundamental human rights like freedom of speech, Biden said.

Security excuses cannot justify “harsh crackdowns on freedom,” he said, noting that there are countries where bloggers are imprisoned and abused for criticizing their government and where Internet content deemed “politically unacceptable” is being censored.

The United States and many other countries “stand against these acts and for Internet freedom,” Biden said.

“The rights of individuals to express their views and petition their leaders, practice their religion, assemble with their fellow citizens online, we believe, must be protected,” he said. “These rights are universal whether they’re exercised in the town square or on a Twitter stream. They’re enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which applies to cyberspace just as surely as it does to every corner of every country on Earth.”

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)