Dem Platform Boasts Obama’s Technology Accomplishments
Democrats on Tuesday touted their work to modernize, expand and secure the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure in the party’s 2012 national platform. Their plan offered sharp contrasts to the GOP’s platform positions on political advertising, cybersecurity and online privacy, while presenting similar commitments to protect Internet freedom and U.S. intellectual property (WID Aug 30 p1). Democrats did not offer any positions on Internet gambling, online pornography, cellphone tracking or online sales taxes. A copy of the 40-page platform circulated on Monday evening but was not to be ratified until after our Tuesday deadline.
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The platform touted the administration’s efforts to strengthen rural broadband infrastructure and expand broadband access to “nearly seven million rural Americans.” National Telecommunications Cooperative Association Vice President-Government Affairs Tom Wacker warned in an email statement that “it’s not enough just to talk about how many Americans might get initially connected to broadband.” “Rather, these important investments in rural broadband infrastructure will only pay off for Americans if they are future-proof and sustainable over the long-run,” he said. CEA said in a separate statement it was supportive of the party’s efforts to “update America’s infrastructure and modernize our regulatory framework to facilitate and promote technological innovation, drive economic growth, free-up spectrum to support next generation wireless technologies, support continued U.S. leadership in competitiveness, and help bring the promise of innovation to all Americans.”
"There is a marked difference in the platforms’ relationship to media and tech policy,” said veteran communications lawyer Andrew Schwartzman. “The Republicans are focused on Wall Street’s agenda, and count on self-regulation, except when it comes to pornography. The Democrats look to Silicon Valley; they embrace openness, innovation and technological change, and they see government as having an important role in promoting competition,” he said.
The Democratic platform shot back at Republican accusations that President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity policies had “failed to curb malicious actions by our adversaries.” On the contrary, Democrats said the administration took “unprecedented steps” to defend America from cyberattacks, including the creation of the first military command dedicated to cybersecurity and conducting a full review of the federal government’s efforts to protect our information and our infrastructure. Furthermore, the platform said the president will “continue to take executive action to strengthen and update our cyber defenses.” Previously John Brennan, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, suggested that the White House was considering an executive order after the Senate failed to reach a compromise on the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) (WID Aug 8 p1).
The Democrats’ platform specifically mentioned the administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights and Do Not Track initiatives as examples of its commitment to protect consumers’ online privacy. In February, the White House unveiled its proposal for baseline consumer privacy protections on the Internet, though Congress has yet to codify any of these principles into law (WID Feb 24 p1). The GOP party platform did not specifically mention online privacy.
The one “real bright spot” is that both platforms for the first time expressly call out Internet freedom as a significant policy goal, said David Sohn, general counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Both parties said they support the current multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance and opposed attempts to impose intergovernmental controls over the Web. Democrats said the administration had built partnerships and successfully negotiated international agreements that support an Internet that is “secure and reliable and that is respectful of U.S. intellectual property, free flow of information, and privacy.” Republicans said that they to would resist “any effort to shift control away from the successful multi-stakeholder approach of Internet governance and toward governance” by international or other intergovernmental organizations. “To have both platforms highlighting Internet freedom really shows that it is an issue that now commands both widespread and bipartisan attention and support,” said Sohn.
Specific to U.S. intellectual property, Democrats said the administration has encouraged voluntary agreements and seizures to minimize infringement of U.S. IP. MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd said in a separate statement he was encouraged that both the GOP and Democrats have now “clearly stated that protecting the free flow of information on the Internet and protecting American innovators are not mutually exclusive goals -- and that in fact, they are equally critical.”
Morality in Media urged Democrats to include stronger enforcement language for federal pornography laws. “It’s time for the Democratic Party to take a major step to protect children and families from the scourge [of] pornography,” said President Patrick Trueman. “American children are awash in hardcore pornography that is now so prevalent on computers, on smart phones, tablets, and on cable and satellite TV,” said Trueman, who was a former chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.