Governments behave like sheep when it comes to bad governance. And Mexico has decided to blindly follow the bad examples from both sides of Atlantic.
In its raw form the bill extended government surveillance powers, while the police have new powers to seize and access user data without a court order. Police will also be able to track users in real time, using location information and, if the need arises, they will be authorised to actually shut down both mobile and internet networks off their own bat should they consider it in the interests of public safety.
In addition, the ruling Peña Nieto Government has taken the lead from the US FCC’s chairman, Tom Wheeler, who in public statements has defended so-called double-sided business models as probably inevitable (the good old double-sided model is one practised by the cable industry, of course, one of the industries Wheeler used to lobby for). So the Mexican bill includes provisions for the “fast lane” better than best effort internet access services.
Telcos haven’t had it all their own way though.The Mexican government has also taken the worst of European legislation and applied it to Mexico by imposing a 24-month data retention requirement on the country’s network operators. Taken aback by the response to the bill the government has undertaken to take out a contentious provision which would have allowed it to block calls and internet communications, but critics claim the changes so far have been cosmetic and most of the real poison remains in the bill.
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