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06/23/2010

Editor's note: We also published an interview with German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière on Wednesday, which can be read here .

When it comes to the Internet, politicians have trouble coming across as anything but newbies -- their decisions are alternately knee-jerk, don't go far enough or are overhasty. That's one reason the Pirate Party enjoyed a good deal of success during the last German national election when it ran on a freedom of information platform, why there were mass protests against a proposal by the German government to block sites believed to host child pornography, and why Germany's Constitutional Court ruled against a data-retention law that would have stored all citizen's telephone and Internet data for six months as part of European Union efforts to combat terrorism.

On Tuesday, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière made a first significant policy speech providing indications of where the government in Berlin may soon be heading in terms of Internet legislation. His speech comes at a time of growing debate over Internet privacy in Germany that has been targeted at social networking giant Facebook and Google, whose search engine business has been expanded to the point that it now offers digital libraries with entire collections and Street View, which offers photos of streets in a number of countries around the world.

'Net Dialogues'

"At first, we ignored the phenomenon of the Internet for too long, and in some cases we underestimated it -- more than anything, though, it astounded us," de Maizière said at the start of his speech in which he would lay out his government strategy for Internet policies in the coming years. To come up with his ideas for the digital age, de Maizière had convened an expert panel. During these "net dialogues," four of which have taken place so far, Internet activists had the chance to exchange ideas with government officials, companies and legal experts.

They had a lot to discuss, too. As part of the initial findings of the group, the minister presented 14 theses on Tuesday that he wants to adopt as the foundations of the German government's Internet policies. The talking points have all been posted on the Internet for an online discussion and further events are planned in the autumn. In his speech, de Maizière said he would primarily promote existing laws, while at the same time appealing for all sides to take each other into consideration and for a self-regulation of society and business. Only if that doesn't work, he said, should the state become active. "Exaggerated protection also always means paternalism," he warned.

With his statements, the minister hinted at a laissez-faire approach that focuses more on balance and dialogue than the lawbooks. His theses are pragmatic and offer little in the way of surprises. "An approach that views the Internet exclusively as a security risk and primarily fosters distrust against the citizens cannot be the starting point for government action," he said. However, he said he still believed in blocking Internet sites and in data retention.

Germany's federal parliament, the Bundestag, for example, is currently considering legislation that could ban Google from photographing entire swaths of streets as part of its controversial Street View project. But de Maizière said he considered that to be the wrong approach. "If we start coming up with individual legislation (on issues like that), then we will soon fall far behind. The law would then be neither be neutral towards technology nor open to development."

Increased Protection for Individuals

Noting the massive societal transformation that has seen the rise of bloggers who write their own stories, take their own pictures, and can at times be just as powerful as the traditional media, he said laws needed to be changed to give greater powers to individuals in responding to complaints about how they are portrayed or represented on the Internet.

In light of this shift in the balance of "data power," he called for increased privacy rights for individuals on the Internet, similar to the right of reply that exists in the traditional German media enabling individuals to defend themselves against "incorrect or defamatory" information on the Internet. He would like to see search engines be forced to provide "a person's own version of events at the top of search results."

De Maizière is also calling for people to have the right to demand that Internet providers delete anonymous abuse on the Web. He said that if people don't identify themselves and publish abusive comments online, they forfeit their right to "complain when their data is deleted." He said the state must set the parameters so that each individual can express their freedom on the Internet -- but a balance must also be found between freedoms that are in direct competition with each other.

But he also rejected total online anonymity, arguing that is the reason why data retention is needed -- if necessary, Internet users must be identifiable as real individuals. "The fundamental principle of not being observed in daily private life must also be protected on the Internet, just as serious violations of the law must be met with serious sanctions," de Maizière said.

The Internet can also help in political decision-making, but naturally only as a supplement to existing structures, de Maizière said. "Expectations should not be set too high," he said. It's a sentence that could also sum up his speech as a whole. Throughout his talk, de Maizière tried to strike a conciliatory tone, as if he wanted to show that he has been listening to all parties. Another example is the development of broadband networks, which will naturally be supported by the state, but which will primarily remain the responsibility of companies.

Praise and Criticism

De Maizière's speech met with a mixed response from the Internet community. "The minister's speech was full of questions and maybes," said Constanze Kurz of the Chaos Computer Club, an influential German hacker organization. In the discussion after the speech, she praised the fact that there was a consensus on many points. Under de Maizière's predecessor as interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, that would have been unimaginable, she said. She criticized, however, de Maizière's support for a law blocking child pornography on the Internet, which in her view is technically problematic.

She also criticized de Maizière for not providing an answer to the question of how the state intends to guarantee the fundamental right to the confidentiality and integrity of information technology systems, which has been demanded by Germany's Constitutional Court. Instead, Kurz said, de Maizière had said it was essential that telecommunications companies retain data from telephone, e-mail and Internet traffic. That was a contradiction, she said. "The Interior Ministry has until now not given an answer to that question."