Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union, has been elected to the InternetNZ board following a recent membership vote.
This election comes after a campaign by the Free Speech Union to increase InternetNZ memberships and influence, aiming to restore focus on free speech and democratic governance within the organisation.
The Free Speech Union criticised recent proposed changes to InternetNZ’s constitution, which it said risked shifting the organisation away from its core technical role toward content regulation and limiting online speech.
InternetNZ proposed changing its constitution to embed Treaty of Waitangi principles into its governance, effectively shifting from a purely technical and neutral role to a “treaty-led” or culturally focused organisation. This move aimed to acknowledge Māori-Crown relationships within the organisation’s decision-making and incorporate Māori representation and accountability.
Critics argued this would politicise InternetNZ, which manages New Zealand’s .nz domain space and traditionally operates with technical neutrality. They warned the changes could lead to censorship and undermine InternetNZ’s core function of impartial domain management. The union argues decisions about harmful content should be made by Parliament, not by InternetNZ’s board.
Ayling said he will bring principled leadership to defend openness, innovation, and freedom of expression on New Zealand’s internet. The Free Speech Union emphasised its goal is to protect intellectual diversity and ensure all Kiwis can speak freely online, regardless of whether their views are popular.
Read more over at The Free Speech Union
The Centrist is a new online news platform that strives to provide a balance to the public debate - where this article was sourced.
InternetNZ proposed changing its constitution to embed Treaty of Waitangi principles into its governance, effectively shifting from a purely technical and neutral role to a “treaty-led” or culturally focused organisation. This move aimed to acknowledge Māori-Crown relationships within the organisation’s decision-making and incorporate Māori representation and accountability.
Critics argued this would politicise InternetNZ, which manages New Zealand’s .nz domain space and traditionally operates with technical neutrality. They warned the changes could lead to censorship and undermine InternetNZ’s core function of impartial domain management. The union argues decisions about harmful content should be made by Parliament, not by InternetNZ’s board.
Ayling said he will bring principled leadership to defend openness, innovation, and freedom of expression on New Zealand’s internet. The Free Speech Union emphasised its goal is to protect intellectual diversity and ensure all Kiwis can speak freely online, regardless of whether their views are popular.
Read more over at The Free Speech Union
The Centrist is a new online news platform that strives to provide a balance to the public debate - where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
Well done Jonathan Ayling. We can just see the creeping tentactles of something quite sinister being embedded in many areas of the country. There is a decision making process behind all of this that involves meetings and strategic thinking and people calling the shots and we don't really know who is giving the orders other than being associated to Iwi. For example, somewhere there will be minutes of meetings between a group of people and in this instance a decision was made to bring the InternetNZ under their control. Jonathan Ayling is fighting back and there is clear transparency in what he is doing.
Unfortunately the less freedom more government crowd were in the majority on AGM voting night. So none of the amendments to bring the constitution back in line passed. From listening to the counter viewpoints and the membership survey results it seems there was a campaign to get as Shaun Plunket call the 'lanyard wearers' signed up in large numbers, 39% of new members signed cause they wanted to counter 'right wing' influence. They must have quite a network motivated of people on thier side. As evidenced in the numbers on submissions to treaty principles bill.
NZ - due to its size and democratic status ( now in doubt) - has been a "laboratory" country for new ideas e.g. Keynes and employment. This may be happening again with dark intentions.
Ms Ardern would know about this plan for sure.
Yeah, the people pro the existing Boad and policy mobilised their people better to attend the meeting where the motions were voted on. The FSU obviously mobilised their crowd to vote for Ayling, but didn't get so many of them to the meeting. They were engaging in a kind of 'soft activism' which generated limited commitment. Just as it's easier to get people to sign a petition than to write a letter or turn out in public.
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