[Advocacy Advisors] Letter to SUBTEL in Chile

[Yana Welinder]

Hi all,

A few months ago, the Chilean Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones (SUBTEL)
ordered certain carriers to stop selling data bundles that waive the fees
for accessing social media sites. A few news outlets reported that this
order prohibits Wikipedia Zero in Chile.[1]  But after consulting with
local advocates, we believe that the SUBTEL order is not clear on that
point. Indeed, when Marco Correa of Wikimedia Chile asked this question to
Subsecretary Huichalaf via Twitter, Huichalaf responded somewhat
ambiguously that there is not a service like Wikipedia Zero in Chile and
the order applies to "regulated companies" (presumably not Wikipedia
Zero).[2]

I wanted to let you know that we are preparing a letter to SUBTEL together
with Wikimedia Chile to ask SUBTEL to clarify that its order does not
prohibit Wikipedia Zero in Chile. Our plan is to submit the letter next
week.

I'll share a copy of the letter and continue keeping this list updated.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts about this.

Best,
Yana

[1] Quartz (
http://qz.com/215064/when-net-neutrality-backfires-chile-just-killed-free-access-to-wikipedia-and-facebook/
);
TechPresident (
http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/25090/face-chile-net-neutrality-v-human-right-facebook-wikipedia
);
Pando (
http://pando.com/2014/05/30/chile-should-be-commended-for-taking-away-facebook-and-wikipedia/
);
TechDirt (
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140603/05442127439/chile-bans-free-delivery-social-media-services-to-uphold-net-neutrality.shtml
).

[2] https://twitter.com/huichalaf/status/473310511711682560

-- 
Yana Welinder
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext. 6867
@yanatweets <https://twitter.com/yanatweets>

NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal/ethical
reasons I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.
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