[IRPCoalition] Big Tech governing Big Tech -- An open letter to UN SG to stop plans for a new High Level Multistakeholder Body

Fri Mar 5 11:30:43 EET 2021

Hi All,

I am deeply concerned about the implications relating to the ideological
orientation through which technology i was involved in creating, is now
being commercialised world-wide as the underlying technology for vaccine
passports:  I have illustrated my concerns:
https://medium.com/@timothy.holborn/digital-covid19-vaccine-passport-4298933ae393
<https://medium.com/@timothy.holborn/digital-covid19-vaccine-passport-4298933ae393>

alongside the thread that can be found:
https://twitter.com/SailingDigital/status/1367756011507912705  & various
notes made with the HashTag: #DataCollars
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23datacollars

It must be noted; that there is a far broader ecosystems approach that
seeks to support human personhood / human agency, in relation to digital
evidence & AI; via an ecosystem, that this tactical method by major 'silo'
related investors - is seemingly seeking to circumvent.  The objective
'intent' of my work from 2000 ( starting with
http://webcivics.org/iBank.html document, way back then); is illustrated in
the afore mentioned links.  The reason why standards was required; was to
ensure that the technologies employed were provided royalty free status by
patent-pool related intellectual property holders, as to ensure 'freedom of
thought' was able to be supported as a 'feature'; however, technology in
and of itself is ideologically agnostic.  Whether it be the perversion of
elections ( https://www.wired.com/2017/02/veles-macedonia-fake-news/ ) or
toilet-paper shortages ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51731422
) there is a big difference between solutions (
https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-decentralized-id-blockchain/ )
brought to market via some sort of 'weeties packet'; that issue an
'identifier' to 3rd party, extremely advanced artificial intelligence
systems related (for profit) archives of information about persons; vs.
solutions that produce an inter-domestic approach whereby those 'online
data storage' and AI operations related systems, are made to be
inter-domestic; as to support knowledge economy on an inter-domestic
manner, which may in-turn better enfranchise humanity and support of
underlying human rights principles.

There is a very limited amount of time in which an alternative considered
to be 'fit for purpose' may be brought about (inter-domestically).  One of
my early ideas is that perhaps; our health agencies can provide the
'passports' for persons; and that the 'commercial' 'decentralised
identifiers' can be issued to businesses (legal personalities) rather than
human beings (natural persons); which is likely easier for various
international stewardship of economic affairs persons to figure out; given
the difference in how policy is made to protect the 'value' of 'commercial
investments' (thereby the 'legal personalities' 'digital identifiers' /
socio-economic rights) vs. similar sorts of considerations made about human
beings, particularly those who are poor without family trusts or
directorships or assets.

A #DataCollar may become a new form of 'slavery', in a very different way
(nb: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01442872.2020.1724926 )
to older examples; that requires people to be shipped in boats as 'slaves'
(provided shelter and the basics as to support the means of slaves to
provide labour); or 'illegals' (kinda like a slave, no much in terms of
'access to justice', simlar to alien:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(law) which relates in-turn to 'choice
of law' on digital silos - so - not sure if the implications of that kinda
thing are well understood?),

In-order to communicate anything that may in-future be considered to be 'of
value', we are increasingly required to use online systems.  How are human
rights or sovereign systems of government (particularly those that involve
parliamentary representatives; rather than more simply 'rulers',
notwithstanding various views such as the one that was available:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190206213806/http://www.christianfinanceobservatory.org/en/the-charta/
as is still available:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz_os8GdvH2nUGR3TERGMzJnNVU/view (per
attached); whereby there are various 'values' we share world-wide; which i
am very concerned, may be set aside by a handful of persons, in ways that
concerns me greatly, may not be good for our biosphere or humanity.

Regards,

Timothy Holborn

On Fri, 5 Mar 2021 at 18:42, parminder via IRP <
irp at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org> wrote:

>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
> To: "irp at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org" <
> irp at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2021 14:11:59 +0530
> Subject: Big Tech governing Big Tech -- An open letter to UN SG to stop
> plans for a new High Level Multistakeholder Body
>
> Dear All
>
> This is an open letter to the UN Secretary General
> <https://justnetcoalition.org/big-tech-governing-big-tech.pdf> initiated
> by 16 global and national level civil society networks and organisations
> urging him to shelve plans for a High Level Multistakeholder Body which, if
> set up, can be expected to become the default apex global digital
> governance and policy body. This body is proposed to have a private funding
> model, with strong hints also at a 'pay to play' model. It is but obvious
> that Big Tech will come to dominate any such body.
>
> Quoting from the letter:
>
> *Not only in developing countries but also in the US and EU, calls for
> stronger regulation of Big Tech are rising. At the precise point when we
> should be shaping global norms to regulate Big Tech, plans have emerged for
> an ‘empowered’ global digital governance body that will evidently be
> dominated by Big Tech. Adding vastly to its already overweening power, this
> new Body would help Big Tech resist effective regulation, globally and at
> national levels. Indeed, we face the unbelievable prospect of ‘a Big Tech
> led body for Global Governance of Big Tech’.*
>
>  Two technical annexes to the open letter explain the background of the
> matter in considerable detail.
>
> *This letter is open for endorsements, *which can be done by writing an
> email to *secretariat at justnetcoalition.org
> <secretariat at justnetcoalition.org>* or filling *this form
> <https://justnetcoalition.org/big-tech-governing-big-tech-form>* before
> midnight PST (GMT-8) of the 7th of March.
>
>
> Please also do circulate to other groups and networks where it may attract
> interest.
>
>
> The open letter may also be accessed at
> https://justnetcoalition.org/big-tech-governing-big-tech.pdf
>
>
> French text is at :
> https://justnetcoalition.org/big-tech-governing-big-tech-french.pdf
> <https://justnetcoalition.org/big-tech-governing-big-tech-french.pdf> and Spanish
> version at -
> https://justnetcoalition.org/big-tech-governing-big-tech-spanish.pdf
>
>
> Please let us know if you have any questions or comments regarding the
> above.
>
>
> Best, parminder
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: parminder via IRP <irp at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org>
> To: "irp at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org" <
> irp at lists.internetrightsandprinciples.org>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2021 14:11:59 +0530
> Subject: [IRPCoalition] Big Tech governing Big Tech -- An open letter to
> UN SG to stop plans for a new High Level Multistakeholder Body
> _______________________________________________
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