Italy is promoting a draft for internet governance which aims to be the first step towards a European internet bill of rights. The government has created an ad hoc committee convening the major experts in the field; and the esteemed jurist Stefano Rodotà is leading the efforts in order to submit and comment the first proposals by the end of September. In October a complete draft is meant to be presented by the ambitious committee at the European inter-parliamentary meeting on fundamental rights and to be submitted on the online platform Civi.ci in order to receive Italian citizens suggestions. The work that the committee will face is broad, complex and includes very hot topics such as: net neutrality; the inclusion of internet access among universal rights; freedom of information; finding a satisfying balance among transparency, the rule of law and privacy; and digital literacy. Around the world, many are the countries that are supporting internet governance initiatives: the lively debate whether or not regulating the internet seems therefore lean towards legal definitions of user’s freedoms and obligations; and Rodotà reminds to opposers that the online world is full of binding “terms of service” that are already ruling our lives, therefore now the right question is who runs the internet. As far as the Italian project is concerned, many are worried that few months will not be enough to draft a document that goes beyond a mere and generic declaration of principles. To avoid this situation, according to Juan Carlos de Martin - committee member and co-director of the Nexa Center for Internet & Society at the Politecnico of Turin - it would be useful to start realising a concrete regulatory framework on impactful issues such as e-surveillance and data retention. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Friday, 22 August 2014 (Source: ZDNet) This news has been realized by gLAWcal—Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy and the University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy which are both beneficiaries of the European Union Research Executive Agency IRSES Project “Liberalism in Between Europe And China” (LIBEAC) coordinated by Aix-Marseille University (CEPERC). This work has been realized in the framework of Workpackages 4, coordinated by University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy.

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