Tomorrow, the French Presidency will host a meeting – the e-G8 Forum –  focusing exclusively on shaping the agenda of the forthcoming G8 Summit around key global Internet policy issues. This will be the first time that the Internet’s role in society and the economy is explicitly on the G8 agenda. Yet, given the relative absence of civil society groups at the discussions, we are concerned that corporate interests and not those of citizen-users may dominate the agenda.

WITNESS has joined other civil society groups working towards the promotion of Internet freedom, digital rights and open communication in sending an open letter to the e-G8 and the G8 asking them to use this meeting as an opportunity to publicly commit to:

  • Expanding Internet access for all
  • Combating digital censorship and surveillance
  • Limiting online intermediary liability and,
  • Upholding principles of net neutrality.

Read the open letter, and sign-on to an Access Now petition.

For background on why these issues are important to WITNESS and the human rights community, you can see our executive director, Yvette Alberdingk Thijm speak on these themes at a gathering convened by the Ford Foundation in March of this year:

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