Yesterday Brazil’s Senate passed ‘Marco Civil da Internet,’ to many known as the Internet Constitution. The Congress, a separate Brazilian legislative body, had passed that bill by the end of last month, so now President Dilma Vana Rousseff’s promised signing will soon make it the law of the land. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/23/us-internet-brazil-idUSBREA3M00Y20140423
The Internet Constitution arose from the ashes of Edward Snowden’s disclosure of NSA spying on President Rousseff, in 2013, and she took just six months to fast-track a comprehensive balance between corporate, government, and public interests in the Internet. The most controversial provision, to make Google and Facebook keep all data about Brazilian citizens on servers housed within Brazil, ultimately was stricken from the text of the bill. In place the Congress and Senate agreed to extend Brazilian legal jurisdiction worldwide when Brazilian citizens’ data is involved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Civil_da_Internet
HamiltonFinanceServices.com analysts note that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, also a target of NSA spying, promised in October 2013 before the UN General Assembly to take the idea of the Internet Constitution to the rest of the world. Tim Berners-Lee, one of the inventors of the Internet and a leader of world policy on how the Internet should evolve to maintain its autonomy and decentralized structure, has already voiced key support for the Internet Constitution. Perhaps the Brazilian model will lead the world to policies that fulfill Tim Berners-Lee’s dream. What do you think?
