[Advocacy Advisors] Wikipedia Zero specifically excepted from ban of zero-rating services in Chile

[Yana Welinder]

Hi Cristian,

Thanks for your comments.

I'm glad that Chile is an example of a country with a strong net neutrality
law that does not prohibit Wikipedia Zero. Generally, the principle of net
neutrality is not that unequivocal that zero-rating can be said to clearly
violate it. In fact, out of eight net neutrality laws and regulations
worldwide, only one (if any) actually prohibits all zero-rating.
Presumably, regulators recognize they have to review zero-rating practices
on their merits and see if they pose any harm to the open internet.
Otherwise, they will end up prohibiting free access to information for no
apparent reason.

Wikipedia Zero, as structured, does not pose harm to the open internet. It
promotes free speech and innovation, which are the two underlying purposes
of net neutrality. It's structured around our ten operating principles that
make sure that the initiative doesn't create a slippery slope towards other
harmful services because it would immediately be obvious if they don't
operate under similar principles.

With this position, SUBTEL hasn't articulated a Wikipedia Zero exception.
He provided an informal clarification that his recent order only prohibited
certain commercial bundles. The order didn't cover zero-rating initiatives
like Wikipedia Zero. While we don't yet know the exact scope of what's
allowed and are asking carriers to seek formal clarification from SUBTEL, I
could imagine that this category may include initiatives like zero-rated
lending of ebooks from public libraries and free access to non-profit
healthcare apps.

We've seen support from net neutrality advocates who can see that a country
can have both net neutrality and initiatives like Wikipedia Zero. Some of
them helped us prepare our communication to SUBTEL. We are discussing
broader policy on how the two could coexist and will report back as soon as
we reach a common understanding. In the meantime, here is a summary that
CDT prepared of a related panel discussion at IGF earlier this month:
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/wks2014/index.php/proposal/view_public/208

Best,
Yana


On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 1:37 PM, Cristian Consonni <kikkocristian at gmail.com>
wrote:

> (probably this can be commented by more qualified people than myself)
>
> TL;DR
> Chile's government (Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones, SUBTEL) has
> issued a circular (i.e. an explanation of the law), called circular n.
> 40[1], earlier in April this year stating that zero-rating go against
> the Chilean net neutrality law in force (spec. disposition n. 6 and 7.
> of law n. 18.168)[*]. Today  SUBTEL has "confirmed to us [WMF and
> Wikimedia Chile] that the new order was not intended to prevent
> Wikipedia Zero and similar free knowledge initiatives"
>
>
> http://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/09/22/chilean-regulator-welcomes-wikipedia-zero/#cite_ref-1
>
> Well, in one word this is, for sure, "a thing".
>
> Cristian
>
> [1]
> http://www.subtel.gob.cl/transparencia/Perfiles/Transparencia20285/Normativas/Oficios/14oc_0040.pdf
> [*] {{es}} (end of page 1) "La estructura de la oferta en comento,
> importan a juicio de esta autoridad una contravención a las normas que
> en la especie regulan y prohiben conductas discriminatorias de
> contenidos, aplicaciones o servicios, que integran el principio de
> Neutralidad de Red contenidas en la normativa sectorial, y en
> particular al texto del articulo 24o H letra a) de la Ley [dispuesto
> 6o y 7o de la Ley no. 18,168]"
> {{en}} "The structure of the offers under scrutiny, imply to the
> judjement of this authority an infringement of the norms ... which
> regulate and prohibit conduct of discrimination of contents,
> applications or services which constitute the principle of Net
> Neutrality contained in the sectorial norms, and in particular in the
> text of the article 24th H letter a) of the [aforementioned] law"
>
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>



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

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