For Immediate Release

Today: OpenMedia hosts leading Internet freedom advocates, experts, and innovators for Reddit Q&A

Conversations takes place on the heels of Canada joining controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement

October 24, 2012 – Today, groups from the StopTheTrap.net Coalition and leaders in the Internet freedom community are hosting a live “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on Reddit today – including one of the Reddit co-founders.

The topic of conversation is the impending Internet restrictions being negotiated through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and the importance of Internet freedom more broadly. This question-and-answer session takes place only shortly after the Canadian government signed onto the controversial TPP agreement.

Participants in the live conversation include:

  • Grassroots Internet freedom group OpenMedia
  • Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian
  • Ben Huh, CEO of The Cheezburger Network
  • Digital rights advocates and experts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Electronic Frontiers Australia, InternetNZ, Public Knowledge, Public Citizen, and Professor Michael Geist
  • Online innovators Mike Masnick Techdirt, Elliot Noss from TuCows, and Michael Tippett from Ayoudo
  • Civil society leaders from the ACLU and Andrew Rasiej from the Personal Democracy Media

Reddit AMAs are a kind of crowdsourced interview where users pose questions to a celebrity or other interesting figure. Reddit boasts over 42 million unique visitors last month, from over 175 different countries.

“Today we’re trying to model a citizen engagement process that our government and TPP officials should consider adopting.” says OpenMedia Executive Director Steve Anderson. “The TPP will affect us all; it’s wrong that an agreement with such severe implications is being negotiated behind closed doors. Internet users deserve a say in our digital future.”

Canadians can join Reddit for free, and participate in the conversation here: http://redd.it/1204gt

About OpenMedia

OpenMedia is a grassroots organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open and affordable Internet. The group works towards informed and participatory digital policy.

About the StopTheTrap.net campaign

The StopTheTrap.net campaign pushes back against the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which contains restrictive binding provisions that could criminalize everyday uses of the Internet. It is supported by a diverse coalition of organizations and over 115,000 people from around the world who have signed the petition at http://StopTheTrap.net.

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