I don't usually post texts in English on this blog, I opened a page on
Medium for that purpose. However, the publication of this report, by the Internet Policy Observatory, which looks
at the multistakeholder initiatives for Internet Governance in Latin America
-and covers the ones in Venezuela- has led me to share it with the intention of
clarifying some data. My essay (copied below)was delivered for publication before the Second Meeting on Internet Governance for Development and Social Transformation (an
event organized by CANTV, Conatel, the Venezuelan chapter of ISOC, and
Internauta Venezuela) took place in August 2015, so I didn't included it in the narrative. The IPO report dated on September 2015, however,
it does not include -nor mention- what I find most interesting: in 2014 there was not just one,
but two events. This year there was only one event, in which both the
Venezuelan chapter of ISOC, as well as public entities were involved. If the
multistakeholder model seeks to bring all actors to the table, does this mean that
we are moving forward? That is an interesting question. What do you think about it?
In a politically polarized country, where the ruling party controls
all the branches of Government, promoting mechanisms to enable Internet
governance is a difficult but unavoidable challenge. Proof of this is
what happened last year when two events that gave an initial look at
this topic happened almost simultaneously. The first was sponsored by
government bodies
[1],
and NGOs that promote the defense of digital rights were not invited;
the second was organized by the Internet Society, and representatives of
the public entities were absent
[2].
When I was invited to speak at the latter one, I served as a
representative of the academic sector whose role revolved around
creating paths to promote a consensus about basic Internet governance in
the country. This must be done in order to slow the decline that the
telecommunications sector in general (UIT, 2014; WebIndex, 2014)
[3],
and freedom on the net, in particular, have experienced in at least the
past four years. (Freedom House, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
[4].
The Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, approved on
December 1999, guarantees freedom of expression and establishes that
universal access to information is a prerequisite for the economic,
social, and political development of the country. Nonetheless, Congress
put forward a set of government policies limiting these rights (such as
the amendments to the 2010 Law of Telecommunications and Social
Responsibility in Radio, TV and Electronic Media), contradicting the
principles prescribed in the fundamental law.
Over the past decade, Venezuelan government went from promulgating
Presidential Decree No. 825 in the year 2000, which declared the access
and use of Internet a priority for the nation’s development, to the
approval of Decree 6649
[5]
in 2009, which defines Internet as a luxury expenditure for all public
institutions. Furthermore, in December 2010, the Telecommunications Law,
as well as the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television
(which now includes electronic media) were reformed to impose serious
restrictions on the telecommunications and media sectors
[6].
There is a clear governmental strategy to achieve hegemony over
digital media. The complex setup put in place to prevent free access to
Internet includes the following components:
- A legislative environment that favors the state-owned monopoly of the telecommunications sector.
- Restriction of private investment via foreign currency exchange controls.
- Low Internet penetration in rural areas.
- High cost of equipment and Internet service rates.
- The absence of an independent regulatory body.
In Venezuela, universal access to Internet, and therefore freedom on
the net, has been constricted not only through arbitrary governmental
measures; such as the blocking of websites, surveillance of
communications, the censorship and harassment of journalists, and the
imprisonment of cyber activists; but also through subtle, practically
invisible methods such as the control over telecommunications
infrastructure.
The latter has been achieved through two main
mechanisms: the monopoly the main telecommunications operator (CANTV, an
enterprise nationalized in 2007) has over the sector, and the
restricted access to foreign currency, which private businesses need for
their operations and investments. The state-owned company has
prioritized expanding access rather than improving connection speeds. At
the same time, private companies have focused their investments in
areas that generate the most revenue. The landscape in Venezuela is
clear: a country that is 60 percent connected, but with speeds higher
than 4.0 Mbps only in economically profitable sectors..
Since at least 2010, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
has been reporting a decrease in the Venezuelan ICT Development Index.
Although official government figures say that the Internet penetration
rate is close to 60 percent
[7], the average download speed is only around 2.0 Mbps
[8], and according to Akamai
[9],
the average highest speed does not surpass 8.0 Mbps. Out of the three
mobile phone operators, only one offers 4G connections in a limited
number of locations. There are approximately 8 million smartphones in
the country, but according to personal calculations of the data provided
by Conatel and ITU, only 7 percent of these devices have broadband
connections. Due to the new exchange control regulations established in
February 2015 that limit private companies’ access to foreign currency
needed to import technological goods, the situation is posed to worsen.
In contrast with the situation in Venezuela, discussions about net
neutrality and the need to make Internet access a human right advance
around the world, albeit not without obstacles. Similarly, the consensus
that freedom on the net can only be achieved through plural and
democratic governance continues to spread. At NETMundial, an event that
took place in Brazil last year, World Wide Web creator, Tim Berners-Lee,
highlighted a global inequality: 60 percent of the world’s population
lacks Internet access. Democratizing communications encompasses
significantly reducing the digital gap, which is indispensable to ensure
the full participation of citizens in this century.
Agreeing on principles, rules, and processes for making the decisions
that will define the evolution and use of the Internet is a duty for
all sectors of society. We, academics and activists, have pointed out
the absence of Venezuelan officials and the low participation of
representatives from other sectors in the international events where
these topics are debated and analyzed. Actively participating in the
Internet Governance Forum will allow us to promote, with better
arguments, the necessary multi-stakeholder dialogue within our country.
[5] Both decrees can be accessed through the site of Internet Prioritaria (Prioritary
Internet), a campaign in defense of a free internet that we leaded with
a team of researchers of Universidad de Los Andes. http://www.cecalc.ula.ve/internetprioritaria/ Accessed February 11, 2015
