Association des Fournisseurs d'Accès et de Services

AFA stands for Association des Fournisserurs d’ Acces et de Services, which is a French organization consisting of ISPs. AFA was founded in 1997 by leading internet access providers with the main objectives of building a representative structure of the industry and Developing ethics specific to the community.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors generally consists of five members, including the founding director and four members elected by the General Assembly.

The current Board of Directors::

Members:

• France Telecom/Orange

Elected Members:

• SFR
• Bouygues Telecom
• Google France
• Darty

The Administrators:

• Richard Lalande, SFR, President
• Olivier Esper, Google, Secretary
• Pierre-Antoine Badoz, Orange, Treasurer

The permanent staff:

• Carol Gay, Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs
• Nicolas D'Arcy, Legal - Analyst Content
• Quentin Aoustin, Lawyer - Content Analyst

Partners

EuroISPA: AFA is one of the founding members of EuroISPA which was formed in 1997. It indirectly represents 800 Internet Service Providers, the largest worldwide association of ISPs. It represents all the ISPs within the European Union (EU) and is considered as the umbrella association of all ISPs around the world. The current President of EuroISPA is Michael Rotert, President of ECO, the German counterpart of AFA.

INHOPE: AFA is the founding member of INHOPE. It was formed in 1999 based on the European Action Plan for a Safer Internet. It aims at promoting collaboration among the online support (hotlines) providers and was established to monitor the illegal content and activities on the internet. Law Net: Law Net is a service launched by the Forum of Internet Rights to address the queries of citizens arising from the daily activities on the networks. AFA gave a new direction to its work of informing general public, about the common rules to be followed on the Net, by being the partner of the law department of the Net.

Signal Spam: This association, consisting of mainly French organizations, aims to unite all efforts in fight against spam, whether government or Internet industry. It was created in November 2005 with support of a public–private collaboration led by the Department of Media Development. Signal Spam meets its objectives by providing a national platform for reporting spam and providing support of relevant authorities.

AFNIC: AFNIC is a non-profit organization governed under the law of 1 July 1901. It is responsible for administrative and technical management of domain names of France (.fr) and its overseas territories like Reunion islands (.re), French Southern Territories (.tf), etc. It was established in 1997 jointly by the INRIA (National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control of France) and the Ministries of Telecommunications, Industries and Research of the Government of France. It aims to provide internet users with quality services to access the internet with confidence.

Goals

1. Promote access between providers and Internet service for club members.
2. Encourage the development of the online services and internet.
3. Provide training and information for users and professionals about accessing the online services and the Internet.
4. Develop a safer internet program which will promote safer use and fight illegal online content.
5. Work with various international internet service providers for the development of the Internet and online services.
6. Focus primarily on the INHOPE (INternet HOtline Providers in Europe) Network, which focuses on issues regarding illegal online content.
7. Protect and nurture the interests of all AFA members.
8. Promote French culture across the globe, and promote the French language.

Activities

The main mission of AFA is to promote safer internet services, enhance the performance of the services, and take action against illegal online content. To fulfill this mission, they work to establish ethical standards for all members of the AFA.

• On 17th November 1998, AFA created the AFA Point of contact. This marked the beginning of a self regulatory body that united the stakeholders representing the fight against illegal content on the internet that seemed to be offensive to human dignity.
• 11th February 1999: AFPI (French Association of Internet Providers), originally established on 22nd February 1996, merged with the AFA. This merger aimed for the growth of AFA in the field of network services.
• On April 13, 2000, AFA started an initiative that urged the government of France to implement the circle of unbundling to foster the development of high speed internet and its services across France.
• AFA became an executive member of INHOPE in December 2000.
• On 18th May 2001, AFA was promoted to the Vice President seat of INHOPE. Later that month, on 30th May 2001, AFA assisted INHOPE in launching a website to assist people in fighting against child pornography internationally. The website provides contact information for reporting any abusive or illegal content in various countries.
• 26th April, 2006, AFA issued recommendations to fight against spam.
• AFA presented a proposal about various tools to fight dangerous Internet content at an international forum on cyber crime held on 31st March and 1st April 2010. It also presented methods to create general awareness for the issue.