If Nicolas Sarkozy thought he had delivered a convincing speech at the opening of the e G-8, which called for tighter regulation of the Internet in order to have a more 'civilized' society, he received his answer today. Gathered in Deauville, France, for a two-day forum slated to precede the G-8 Conference, Sarkozy hosted 1500 of the most influential Internet entrepreneurs, and attempted to persuade them that tighter regulation was needed.
Egyptian activist Nadine Wahab delivered this comment: 'We're not just consumers and you ( meaning government) have a great responsibility, your policies affect us and affect our lives. The Internet is a delicate ecosystem, and it need not be in your hands'.
Susan Pointer, director of public relations and institutional Google Europe had this to say: 'Access to information is not just a point of view of Google, but a genuine human right'.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO added: 'On the one hand you have the Internet which is this really powerful force for giving people a voice. Now it’s tempting to say that on security or privacy you can go towards the most extreme [regulatory] option and maintain all the value that we currently recognize. I’m worried personally that’s not true'.
Twittter representative in France Tony Wang stated that 'The Internet is a very fragile environment, and freedom of expression should be part of human rights'.
Secretary-General Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Jean-Francois Julliard complained that 'Here at E-G8, we feel that these issues are not priorities, such as the fact that nobody has talked about cyber-dissidents imprisoned. There is talk of economic growth more than democracy.'
Strategic geek of American diplomacy and special adviser to Hillary Clinton, Alec Ross remarked that there had to be a strong commitment to maintain global Internet freedom. Google's Eric Schmidt offered that ' The industry as a whole is concerned that premature regulation ... can shut off whole new industries, whole new opportunities, whole new innovations'.
After two days of sessions, the Internet executives were scheduled to meet with and present recommendations to G-8 heads.
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