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Net lobbyists reshuffle
By Courtney Macavinta
December 12, 1997, 12:35 p.m. PT
While Congress breaks for the holidays, tech-savvy
political forces are forming new alliances and joining
forces to make Net issues just as well-known on
Capitol Hill as their higher-profile counterparts.
Major signs of the high-tech political surge came
this week when two online activists left their
nonprofit posts to start a Washington-based
Internet campaign consulting company, and a pair
of online industry trade groups merged.
Jonah Seiger, who was the Center for Democracy
and Technology's (CDT) communications director,
and Shabbir Safdar, former director of the public
interest group Voters Telecommunications Watch,
said Tuesday that in January they will launch a
company called Mindshare Internet Campaigns.
The firm will use the Net to mobilize voters and
raise awareness about policy issues for its clients,
who will include trade groups, nonprofit
organizations, and political candidates.
On Wednesday, the Association for Online
Professionals (AOP) said it will merge with the
Interactive Services Association (ISA), whose
members include giants Microsoft, AT&T, and
America Online. The combined group will charge
up efforts to safeguard the Net industry from new
taxes, as well as fueling the debate over how the
domain name system should be transferred from
government control to the private sector. For
example, the group will discuss both issues next
week with Ira Magaziner, President Clinton's senior
advisor on Net issues.
The high-tech industry has been reluctant to engage
in the political process, and paid the price when
policies were passed that may have negatively
impacted the industry, such as the Communications
Decency Act. (See related story)
Seiger and Safdar were part of the movement to
get companies that belong to groups such as the
AOP and ISA to wake up to the realities of federal
laws like the CDA--which swiftly passed in 1996,
making it a felony to send or show "indecent"
material to minors over the Net. Parts of it were
struck down by the Supreme Court in June because
it was too broad and could have criminalized simply
posting Web pages about safe sex, art, or medical
issues, for example.
Both Seiger and Safdar organized Netizens to fight
the CDA as well as federal export limits on strong
encryption. Their past tactics include getting
Webmasters to blacken out thousands of sites and
gathering online 115,000 signatures in protest of the
CDA. They also founded Democracy.net, a
nonprofit organization that hosts live Net
broadcasts of congressional hearings and other
policy-shaping events.
No doubt their efforts helped in the demise of the
CDA. "Jonah played a crucial role in developing
CDT's pioneering use of the Net as a means of
grassroots organizing and public education," said
Jerry Berman, executive director of the CDT,
which helped organize one of the plaintiff groups
that challenged the CDA.
Mindshare will target Net users, but it won't stick
solely to high-tech issues.
"Our hope is that we can continue to foster the
development of the Net as a platform for
democracy, while helping a new range of voices use
the Net to advance public policy objectives," Seiger
said today. "Internet users form their own
demographic. They don't just care about Internet
issues. This constituency is growing and developing,
and candidates should pay attention."
The CDA experience is also what led the
16-year-old ISA to rethink its role on the Hill.
"The CDA pointed out the necessity for a clear and
decisive voice on Internet and online issues. The
ISA is hoping that over the next six months we can
garner industry support in making this association
the leading voice on those issues," said Brian
O'Shaughnessy, director of public policy for the
ISA.
The ISA hopes joining up with AOP will expand
the political influence of both groups' members. For
example, AOP has vigorously lobbied in Congress
on behalf of ISPs that have been targeted by certain
criminal legislation as being responsible for their
customers' criminal activity.
"An underlying weakness of the high-tech industry
is that it has been slow to mobilize," O'Shaughnessy
added. "There has been a fear that if you participate
in the political process that you will turn Congress's
eyes on you for more regulation--that is untrue. We
need to be involved in the political process in
Washington, the state capitals, and internationally."