United States Mission to OECD

United States Mission to the OECD

Office of Public Affairs

Paris, France

For Immediate Release                                        December 13, 2011

MEDIA NOTE

United States Applauds OECD Adoption of Internet Policy Making Principles

The United States applauds the OECD for adopting today the Recommendation of the Council on Principles for Internet Policy Making, the result of a critical international effort to support an open Internet that is secure and reliable. As Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday in her third major speech on Internet Freedom, “We support the principles of multi-stakeholder Internet governance developed by more than 30 nations in the OECD earlier this year.”

The following may be attributed to U.S. Ambassador to the OECD Karen Kornbluh:  

“Born at a U.S.-initiated high-level meeting earlier this year, these principles are a major step in our efforts to ensure the Internet remains an open platform, continuing to spur innovation, prosperity and job creation. This platform, that produced more growth in its first 15 years than the Industrial Revolution did in its first 50, mustn’t be balkanized. We will work with others to continue building consensus for these global norms that nurture openness and freedom on the Internet.”

Background:

The OECD Recommendation on Internet Policy Making Principles, developed through the OECD’s multilateral consensus-based process, is an important deliverable on the U.S. open Internet agenda. In May, President Obama issued the U.S. International Strategy for Cyberspace, an agenda for safeguarding the single Internet.  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has developed a groundbreaking Internet freedom agenda, a principled approach to preserving the freedom to connect — the freedoms of expression, association and assembly online — and to ensuring that the Internet can be a platform for commerce, debate, learning and innovation in the 21st century.

The Council Recommendation passed today is a successful follow-on to the U.S.-initiated June 28-29 High Level Meeting on the Internet Economy in which 34 OECD member countries, Egypt, the OECD Business and Industry Advisory Committee, and its Internet Technical Advisory Committee agreed through a Communiqué to the set of principles to guide Internet-related policy making. 

According to McKinsey, over the past five years, the Internet has been responsible for 21 percent of the growth in mature economies and has created 2.6 jobs for every job it has displaced. Its power to generate innovation is rivaled only by its potential to help people realize their rights and democratic aspirations, as the Arab Spring demonstrated.

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• Read the full text of the Recommendation of the Council on Principles for Internet Policy Making!
• Remarks at Conference on Internet Freedom, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, 8 December, 2011
  “We support the principles of multi-stakeholder internet governance developed by more than 30 nations in the OECD earlier this year. A multi-stakeholder system brings together the best of governments, the private sector, and civil society.”
• Remarks by Ambassador Kornbluh on Internet Freedom at the French Senate, 19 October 2011
• Foreign policy of the Internet, The Washington Post, 15 July 2011
  These OECD guidelines make clear that countries can address policy challenges without violating these fundamental rights.
• Agenda, "Internet Economy: Generating Innovation and Growth," June 28-29, 2011                                                    
  Following up on the 2008 Seoul Declaration, this High-Level Meeting's aim is to form a consensus on how best to ensure the continued innovation of the Internet Economy.  
• Remarks on Internet Rights and Wrongs: Choices & Challenges in a Networked World, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, 15 February, 2011
  "One year ago, I offered a starting point for that vision by calling for a global commitment to internet freedom, to protect human rights online as we do offline. The rights of individuals to express their views freely, petition their leaders, worship according to their beliefs – these rights are universal, whether they are exercised in a public square or on an individual blog. The freedoms to assemble and associate also apply in cyberspace. In our time, people are as likely to come together to pursue common interests online as in a church or a labor hall." - Secretary Clinton
• Workshop Summary: The Role of Internet Intermediaries in Advancing Public Policy Objectives, June 2010
  The workshop's aim was to try to identify best practices and lessons learned from experience to date of Internet Intermediaries in advancing public policy objectives. 
• The Economic and Social Role of Internet Intermediaries, April 2010
  As the Internet has grown to permeate all aspects of the economy and society, so too has the role of Internet intermediaries that give access to, host, transmit and index content originated by third parties or provide Internet-based services to third parties. 
• Remarks on Internet Freedom, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, 21 January, 2010
  "The spread of information networks is forming a new nervous system for our planet." - Secretary Clinton

• Seoul Declaration for the Future of the Internet Economy, June 2008

• Seoul Declaration, Summary of the Chair, June 2008
  Realizing the full innovative potential of the Internet Economy requires governments and other stakeholders to work closely together to create and maintain a policy environment and infrastructure that are robust and responsive to a growing set of challenges and opportunities. 

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About the U.S. Mission to the OECD

The United States is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is an international organization, composed of 34 democratic countries with market-based economies. Shared goals include achieving sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in member countries as well as engaging with non-members to contribute to the development of the world economy. Through its cross-country economic research, “soft law,” and effective peer reviews, the OECD is a dynamic international incubator for new ideas, providing the United States an opportunity for engaging with other countries on economic policy.

Get updates at http://usoecd.usmission.gov. Twitter: @USAmbOECD, @DiploParis

MEDIA CONTACT: Zoë Mezin, mezinzl@state.gov, +33 (0)1 45 24 74 26, +33 (0)6 07 90 43 84.