NetChoice submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) regarding international internet policy priorities. We covered several topics, including ICANN and the IANA transition, online platform liability, and online privacy regulations.
First, the IANA transition enabled many hard-won bylaws improvements to hold ICANN accountable to Internet businesses and users. If our government even talks about unwinding the transition, it emboldens critics of the U.S. to push for ICANN and IANA functions to be moved to the UN system – which is about as far away from the private sector as you can go.
Second, we asked NTIA to prioritize free expression online, protected in the USA by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This law has been crucial in protecting free speech online in the age of user-generated content. Internationally, NetChoice argued that NTIA should push for Section 230-style rules to be adopted by trading partners of the United States.
Finally, NetChoice highlighted the costs to American small businesses caused by foreign privacy regulations, such as data localization laws and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Despite these laws being foreign, they will harm American small businesses. GDPR, for example, applies to any business that processes information for a European resident – even if the resident is on U.S. soil.
Read NetChoice’s Comments Here