Who’s behind ISPA?

ISPA has called for “proper scrutiny” of the plans to introduce DoH, but what about some scrutiny of ISPA itself? The organisation may present itself as the mouthpiece of the British internet industry, but it has vested interests.

ISPA calls itself the “UK’s Trade Association for providers of Internet services” and includes broadband providers such as BT, Sky and Virgin Media among its membership, as well as firms from across the internet industry, such as Verizon, Nominet and even Google – who despite vocal support for DoH weren’t nominated as “villains”, unlike non-members Mozilla.

ISPA policy decisions are made by a council that’s voted for by the larger membership, so in effect policy is driven by ISPA members. However, the day-to-day running of the company is undertaken by a political lobbying firm called Political Intelligence (PI).

For example, emails from the press office are signed off as coming from ISPA, even though the staffer concerned is paid by PI. “We’re a public affairs agency and provide secretariat service for ISPA and have done since the 90s,” said an official with PI.

PI provides ISPA with office space and IT infrastructure, as well as organising events, membership management and policy and regulatory work on its behalf. “A lot of PR firms do similar things for other organisations,” the PI spokesperson told us. PI pays ISPA £30,000 a year to license the association’s brand and to run events under ISPA’s banner. PI is also well connected within both industry and government circles. As well as providing secretariat service for both ISPA and IWF, the firm was until 2016 providing similar services for PICTFOR, the Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Forum. The public contact for PICTFOR at the time was Nicholas Lansman, PI’s founder and chairman and the former secretary general of ISPA. This would have put PI in the position of acting for both sides in important discussions on web regulation, such as the introduction of internet filters and measures to deal with online threats. The PI spokesperson insists the situation did not represent a conflict of interest. “With PICTFOR – who we no longer provide services to – a different team worked on PICTFOR than the ISPA team,” the official told PC Pro. “That relationship between PICTFOR and PI was managed by the MPs that effectively ran that association. They have to publish a register that sets out who provides the secretariat function and who’s paid for that, so there’s a register and it’s all transparent,” they continued. “It’s not unusual – whether it’s in PR or public affairs – to have a bit of an expertise and therefore to have a body of clients in a particular area, so it’s not a conflict.”