Europe should adopt the French net neutrality stance

FRENCH WEB FREEDOM GROUP La Quadrature du Net has welcomed the publishing of a cross party report that it said could serve as a benchmark for wider reaching European rules.

The group has published its own translation of the report, which calls for the preservation of the Internet's universality and would preserve end users' "fundamental freedoms".

It added that it "should be considered a template for other European public authorities", and called for proper action on its recommendations, both in France and on a wider European basis. Importantly, it seems that the report has managed to do what few others have done, which is to actually explain the importance of net neutrality.

"The report reveals a deep understanding of the technical, social, economic and political realities of the Internet, and of the huge importance of preserving its universality. The rapporteurs stress the importance of protecting Net neutrality, which is the guarantee of online freedom, refusing to sacrifice it in the name of telecoms operators' economic interest", said Jérémie Zimmerman, co-founder and spokesperson for La Quadrature du Net.

"While the mission's report seems to establish a counterpoint to Nicolas Sarkozy's repressive Internet-related politics, it must now be followed by actions. The MPs emphasise how Net neutrality makes society more democratic and our economy more open, but these conclusions must now be put into action quickly, beyond mere electoralist politics."

The report puts forward "sensible proposals" and are an "important step towards the legal protection of ‘net neutrality'," said the group, and it suggests that although ISPs might say that running preferred networks justifies their own costs, this could not be used a reason for deploying such services.

Also good news for overworked sanity checkers that have been asked to read over any net neutrality regulations, the report also said that blocking and filtering measures would be inefficient and counter-productive. µ