For a few weeks now, we've been telling you about a worrisome EU consultation on regulating the internet. That consultation was
supposed to end today -- but it's been extended a week. As we noted recently, the survey technology built by the EU Commission had a
major bug in it, meaning that many people had their submissions rejected. Based on this, we requested that they extend the survey. We got back two separate responses, the first telling us that they were very sorry, but it would be "impossible" to extend the survey. The second response was that they had agreed to extend the survey one week... but only for people who had run into problems. Given the two conflicting responses, I asked for more information on this (including how they would keep it open only for those people). I also asked if they were planning to announce this anywhere. I was told that it would likely be impossible to make an announcement, and I never heard anything else, as I believe many left for the holidays.
However, the survey's website now lists January 6th as the final date for submissions, which means that, without any public announcement whatsoever, they've extended the submission period by a week. So, for those of you who
have not done it yet, you now have a New Year's resolution: go to our guide at
Dontwreckthe.net, and follow along as you fill out the survey.
Yes, the survey is horrible and confusing. But this is really important, because regulations that come out of this could be a huge mess for the future of the internet. Also, we've heard from two separate sources (one on the Commission and one in the EU Parliament) that if you fill out the survey and then use the reference number provided to you to email in further thoughts (via a "position paper") the Commission is
required to read it. So, yes, even if some of the questions are nonsensical, you have a chance after-the-fact to explain yourself (and we'd recommend doing that as well).
So, yes, it's boring and seems silly, but we urge you to find some time in the next few days and tell the EU Commission
not to mess up the internet.
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