The year was marked with challenges to the open Internet starting with the shutdown of the Internet in Egypt, threats to competition in the mobile market and the introduction of legislation in Congress that would have done grave damage to the Internet. CCIA was an early and consistent voice challenging assaults to Internet freedom and the digital economy from online sales taxes to private rights of action against tech companies.
CCIA also advocated for improvements to the overall economy that could come from boosting innovation through better spectrum, special access, roaming, immigration and patent policies and minimizing constraints on innovation already underway through intervening in privacy, cloud computing, copyright enforcement or tax return policy.
CCIA leveraged its history credibility on antitrust and Internet freedom issues to sound early warnings on the AT&T takeover and PIPA and SOPA before they were introduced. The copyright enforcement bills went from an arcane tech policy issue to the front page of the New York Times.
By November, CCIA saw much to be grateful for in terms of threats to the Internet, as noted in Ed’s Thanksgiving column in the Huffington Post. But the year ended with Internet censorship (SOPA and PIPA) expected to be brought up for votes early in early 2012.
Some of the major events and highlights from 2011 included:Click here for report