Sound Internet Policy in the Post-COVID Era and Beyond: Net Neutrality, the Free Flow of Information and KOR-US Digital Trade

Sound Internet Policy in the Post-COVID Era and Beyond: Net Neutrality, the Free Flow of Information and KOR-US Digital Trade

The US net neutrality policies are in flux. The US has pursued ‘free flow of information’ as the overarching goal for its digital trade and internet governance policies, and one key component has been net neutrality whereby all individuals and entities can share information with an unlimited number of people around the world without having to worry about the economic cost of delivering the data packets constituting their messages.  EU’s telecom regulator BEREC has consistently refused a proposal to charge the internet (2012 BEREC’s comments on the ETNO proposal for ITU/WCIT or similar initiatives along these lines) and Obama FCC’s 2015 Open Net Internet order also explicitly banned network operators from requiring consideration for passing data packets to their customers. 

On the other hand, the Korean legislature is pushing to allow ISPs to require financial compensation from content providers for delivering traffic from them to ISP’s customers. In that context, it is highly anticipated whether and how the Biden era net neutrality policies and “free flow of information” policies will relate to the KOR-US relations and internet governance traversing the two countries. 

May 18, 2021, 1:30 pm Korean Standard Time

via Zoom

▶Registration: https://forms.gle/LebEd7uipoiLGkLv5

Opening Remarks: 

Michael Cavanaugh, Acting Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs, U.S. Embassy 

Moderator: Professor Sang Wook Yi, Hanyang University, Center for Ethics, Law, and Policy of Science and Technology

Panel:

Ernesto Falcon, EFF(Electronic Frontiers Foundation)

Christoph Mertens, Bundesnetzagentur, Germany and BEREC(Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications)

Kyung Sin Park, Professor, Korea University Law School

Hosts: U.S. Embassy of Korea, Open Net Association, Korea University’s American Law Center, Hanyang University’s Center for Ethics, Law, and Policy of Science and Technology(HY CELPST)

Contact: Open Net Association, Signal +82 10 8809 4057 or kyungsinpark@korea.ac.kr