Tell tech companies not to support the TPP
Do not betray your users. The TPP lacks transparency, undermines our basic rights, and harms free speech and innovation. Drop your support now.
Tech experts from every major advocacy group working to defend Internet users’ rights vehemently oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, but a trade association that represents major web companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and Uber just endorsed it.
The TPP was negotiated in complete secrecy by government bureaucrats and corporate lobbyists from industries that hate the Internet—including the ones that wrote terrible censorship bills like SOPA. It’s great for incumbent corporations, but terrible for individual internet users, startups, and the tech economy as a whole.
BREAKING UPDATE: reddit comes out saying they do not support the TPP, distances themselves from Internet Association statement.
The TPP would:
- Expand draconian copyright enforcement, undermining our privacy and the public domain without ensuring protections for free speech;
- Criminalize common practices like tinkering with or modifying devices, even for fair use purposes;
- Enable multi-national corporations to skirt the democratic process and use shadowy international tribunals to undermine Web users’ rights;
- Set a precedent that will encourage anti-Internet lobbyists like the ones who wrote SOPA to use trade agreements to push for bad Internet policy.
There are powerful interests pushing to get the TPP passed through U.S. Congress, and it seems like they managed to pull a fast one on these Internet companies and get them to take a position that goes directly against their own interests and the interests of their users.
Congress could vote on the TPP within a matter of weeks, and they’ll be watching closely how the public reacts to these companies’ statement.
If enough of us speak out, we can get these companies to drop their support for this dangerous agreement, and stand up for the rights of their users and the future of the Internet we all love. Please sign the petition and share this widely right now.
The following companies are members of the Internet Association, who issued the statement in support of the TPP:
