Reports have suggested that the Republican Party Platform pending approval at it's convention this week will contain language supporting internet freedom. While such an approach shouldn't be surprising to those who have followed the evolution of the party to a more libertarian-influenced position on internet issues, it is still interesting to see the language being used with respect to the issues, particularly the protection of personal data. According to the Daily Caller, the final draft of the party's platform will including the following:
1. We will remove regulatory barriers that protect outdated technologies and business plans from innovation and competition, while preventing legacy regulation from interfering with new technologies such as mobile delivery of voice and video data as they become crucial components of the Internet ecosystem.
2. We will 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.
3. We will ensure that personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach and that individuals retain the right to control the use of their data by third parties.
While this is, of course, merely a platform with no weight of law or even promise behind it (not to mention the fact that the legal framework being built around the internet is infamously difficult to line up to real life issues and is, in many cases, unsettled), the Tea Party-influenced approach should be viewed as a positive by individuals across the political spectrum. If nothing else, it signals a welcome departure from the security-at-all-costs approach the party relied upon all too frequently under the influence of its neo-con wing.
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