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The Mozilla Corporation is known for among other things the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird e-mail client, and its current CEO has written an open letter to the European Commission on the upcoming Digital Services Act (DSA) (warning for PDF). In it she vaguely addresses transparency, accountability, online advertising, and digital markets for a European internet, without addressing The Internet itself. The DSA appears to include proposals to split off a European internet from The Internet at large and model it after the great firewall of China in regards to control and isolation.
In the document, New Developments in Digital Services: Short-(2021), medium-(2025) and long-term (2030) perspectives and the implications for theDigital Services Act, the great firewall of China gets praised repeatedly as something to emulate should the EU split of an internet from The Internet:
To make sure these predictions become reality and to prevent the misuse of digital tools, we advise the European Parliament to take a le ading stance in the global digitalisation. Three main recommendations are given in the study: A European cloud / European internet could secure a reliable, trustworthy digital ecosystem in Europe. Funding programmes for eGovernment would use the innovative capabilities of start-ups throughout Europe to create the most digital and advanced government in the world. And all this should be communicated in a visionary and exciting way, making sure the right regulations are in place, but also encouraging boldness and showing a willingness to change (see Figure 2).
[...] Action Plan 1: European Cloud / European Internet
A European firewall/cloud/ internet would foster a digital ecosystem in Europe based on data and innovation. It would drive competition and set standards, similar to what has happened in China in the past 20 years. The foundations of such a European cloud are democratic values, transparency, competition and data protection.
[...] Technologically, it would require a top-level infrastructure, high-speed 5G or a 6G data network and a firewall. Setting up such a network would promote many European companies and therefore boost business and drive innovation.
Like the Chinese firewall, this European internet would block off services that condone or support unlawful conduct from third party countries.
[...] As e-commerce and remote working solutions became widely used and even smartphone tracking to prevent infections met very little scepticism. Now in the aftermath of this pandemic it's the perfect time to act and to push for ambitious goal in digitalising Europe.
[...] Update 2 of the Visionary Communication Programme: i.e. crypto, quantum computing. Here it is important to include visionaries, think tanks and influences to communicate the update to the public.
Phase 2 of the eGovernment Venture Programme: Testing and evaluating first technologies and ideas developed in the programme.
Initialising the European internet: setting up think tanks to creating the cornerstones and possible pitfalls of such a project.
Long term 2025 – 2030
Update 3 of the Visionary Communication Programme: i.e. 6G, European internet, DNA products. Further communication within the Europe of the new digital goals.
The EFF has also responded to the EU Commission on the Digital Services Act, with a request in the opposite direction, that of putting the citizens back in control and avoiding a situation where there are gatekeepers consisting of only a handful of large corporations.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 09 2020, @01:51AM (8 children)
A "great wall" can be either good or bad, depending on how it's used, same as everything else in life.
A "great wall" that blocks all traffic from North Korea, Mumbai , etc would save old people a couple billion bucks a year in scams. Ditto Nigeria and catfishes and Nigerian princes.
Ditto Russia.
Throw in blocking telephone calls from India claiming to be from the tax department. And the ones in Mandarin looking to scam immigrants by telling them there's an arrest warrant out for them.
You don't even have to block it - just erect a toll so that scams become unprofitable, and that businesses that hide behind a fake web presence pretending to be in-country can't fake it any more.
A walled garden can keep the vermin out. They want in, let them pay the toll charges. Even a few pennies per email would stop the tax scams.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 09 2020, @02:01AM (3 children)
Could we also totally block out the USA? And maybe Canada and Australia, too? Lots of companies and people make monies providing services to international scammers.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 09 2020, @03:13AM (2 children)
How about this - totally free nationwide internet access, subsidized by tolls on international traffic entering the country?
This would help kickstart local tech to replace multinationals, help kill of cheap outsourcing, and make internet scams outside the country unprofitable, while making it easier to track down local scammers.
After all, the guilty countries (hello, Indian tax scammers) don't have an incentive to stop scammers because it creates jobs locally.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 09 2020, @06:41AM (1 child)
I'm just thrilled with that idea. I'll be reduced to reading news published by US MSM - which amounts to less than half the news, heavily slanted to support one party view or the other. Thrilled I am!
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 09 2020, @02:24PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 09 2020, @03:23PM (3 children)
The thing about freedom is, as soon as you start qualifying "well actually, everything is free *except for these things,*" then you have a million people clamoring for you to add more exceptions.
Spam calls, hacking, etc. is the price we pay for a free Internet, and I gladly pay that price. The alternative is the slippery slope that Ajit Pai and other crapweasels are trying to push us down.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 09 2020, @04:23PM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday September 09 2020, @06:31PM (1 child)
The difference being, the former category requires you as the victim to consent to be victimized. The consumer unknowingly buying unsafe food or cars endangers them through no fault of their own.
also protect people who haven't consented to participate in Mad Max
also impacts people who aren't party to it
None of them, because they're all stupid examples.
I didn't say a Great Firewall *couldn't* be beneficial, but it's just not worth the risk. It's a system ripe for abuse, and if we've learned nothing else over all these thousands of years, people should know that those in positions of petty power like to exercise it. Go talk to your friend Ajit Pai about how awesome it is to fuck over people's Internet if you like the idea so much.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 09 2020, @10:43PM
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