Technology firms, NGOs, bloggers and security experts from over 60 countries are at the two-day talks
LONDON — Britain and the United States appealed Tuesday for Internet
freedom at a global conference designed to set up the "rules of the
road" for cyberspace, although critics accused Western powers of
hypocrisy.
Government officials, tech firms, NGOs, bloggers and
security experts from more than 60 countries attended the two-day talks
in London, and US Vice President Joe Biden also gave an address via
video-link from Washington.
In his opening speech to delegates
including officials from Russia and China, Hague said the social and
economic benefits of the Internet were huge and warned that any states
trying to block online activity would lose out.
"We must aspire to
a future for cyberspace which is not stifled by government control or
censorship, but where innovation and competition flourish and investment
and enterprise are rewarded," the foreign secretary said.
Hague warned that human rights, particularly the right to privacy and freedom of expression, "should carry full force online".
"We
reject the view that government suppression of the Internet, phone
networks and social media at times of unrest is acceptable," he said.
Biden
echoed Hague, saying that while the Internet presented opportunities
for wrongdoing "on a vast scale" from terrorism to human trafficking,
child pornography to attacks on government systems, they were no excuse
for censorship.
"In our quest for security, we believe that we
cannot sacrifice the openness that makes possible all the benefits and
opportunities that the Internet brings," he said, standing in for US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who had to cancel due to the illness
of her mother, who later died.
He added: "Those countries that try
to have it both ways by making the Internet closed to freedom of
expression but open for business will find that this is no easy task."
Although
both men were referring to crackdowns in the Middle East and North
Africa and efforts by countries such as China and Russia to control the
flow of information, Britain faces accusations of hypocrisy.
In
August, when rioting broke out across English cities, Prime Minister
David Cameron had mooted the idea of stopping rioters communicating via
social media, although the government did not take it any further.
John
Kampfner, chief executive of Index on Censorship, highlighted this at a
side meeting at the conference, saying: "It's very easy to defend this
case of black and white human rights against dictatorships around the
world.
"But as soon as our own western-style stability of the
state is called into question, well then freedom of expression is
expendable. There should be one rule for all including western
governments."
He said Hague had challenged Cameron on his stance
at the time, and in his brief address to the conference on Tuesday, the
prime minister insisted it was important to "strike a balance... between
freedom and a free-for-all".
William Echikson, Google's head of
free expression in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, also warned
at the conference that Western governments were not immune from wanting
to control the Internet.
Freedom of expression "is being
challenged closer to home here in Europe. There are some 60 countries
which impose controls now on the Internet, and that's up from two a
decade ago," Echikson said.
He cited a case last year when three
Google Italy executives were convicted of violation of privacy over an
Internet video of bullying, adding: "The dangers are really here in the
present and they are threatening companies like Google."
The
London talks cover a broad agenda including cyber security, and Hague
said it would aim to set up some basic global principles for cyberspace.
"In
the place of today's cyber free-for-all, we need rules of the road," he
said, adding that Hungary had agreed to hold a follow-on conference in
2012, and South Korea would hold another similar meeting in 2013.