The American Library Association, along with 16 other organizations, signed “Principles for Technology Rights and Opportunity” on Tuesday to address technological and civil rights under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
The document stated that the future of technology, in a digital age, will depend on how Trump and the new administration’s policy on technology and media.
“Technology has the potential to expand economic opportunities, provide a megaphone to historically marginalized groups, improve education, make government more efficient, and much more,” according to the document. “But fulfilling this potential will require policies that respect the principles that have allowed the internet to become what it is today and that support the civil rights of all Americans.”
Other signees in the coalition include the Center for Democracy and Technology, Common Cause and New America’s Open Technology Institute.
The principles that the document addresses range from access, openness, inclusion, free speech, choice, to privacy and opportunity.
The document urges the Trump administration to apply these principles to guide policymaking. In addition, it hopes the president-elect can develop a cornerstone for these media and technology policies.
“The new administration arrives at a crucial moment for technology and civil rights,” the proposal stated. “The future of an open internet, and of technology that supports freedom of expression and equality of opportunity for all, will depend on the actions and decisions of the new president.”
ALA President Julie Todaro wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that by forming the coalition with like-minded experts and institutions, the association wishes to clear up some uncertainties.
“There was not a lot of detail related to technology policy issues during the campaign,” Todaro wrote. “So it’s important to share the principles and work from these in whatever way policy threats or opportunities emerge.”
Robert Hudson, the university librarian at Boston University, noted the importance of remembering the roots of the public library movement.
“Our principles as librarians is for there to be open and free access to information and its value to our democratic society,” Hudson said. “I grew up in Pittsburgh, and Andrew Carnegie was the philanthropist steel magnate who funded public libraries all over the world, because that’s where he felt he got his education, just by going into libraries and being able to read material.”
Several BU students said access to an open and private internet is of the utmost importance to a modern democracy.
Preston Colon, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said he believes taking away his privacy would be an infringement upon his right to freedom of speech.
“Openness on the internet is important,” Colon said. “When we have openness of the internet, any infringement on that I see as a way of infringing our First Amendment rights.”
Teddy Kahn, a CAS senior, said putting restrictions on the content of the internet goes against a fundamental American idea.
“I’m completely opposed to any kind of censorship from the government,” Kahn said. “It’s a pretty basic standard for United States politics to try not to censor anything, but obviously, it’s not always true. I think if censorship comes from smaller bodies like BU, that’s their prerogative, but from the government, that shouldn’t be happening.”
Brian Koh, a senior in the Questrom School of Business, said he is not worried about the new Trump administration and the potential changes it could make to the internet.
“The Trans-Pacific Partnership has a very intricate privacy information clause regarding the internet and intellectual property,” Koh said. “I think I read somewhere that [Trump] is specifically against the whole agreement, and it is implicit that he is opposed to reduction and internet privacy as well. I wouldn’t think of it as much as a threat to the structural integrity of privacy of the internet, but it is an interesting topic to keep track of.”
