Myths And Masquerades At Web Conference

Michael Hedges April 28, 2014 Follow on Twitter

The inner workings of the internet bring to mind the proverbial sausage, ingredients best left out of polite conversation for such a delightful end result. Most people just eat and enjoy. Recognizing the internet as the most powerful global distributor of information since the invention of paper frustrates those with a deep need to control what people see, read and hear. A recent meeting on the future of the internet offered food for thought.

Hoping to tackle the weighty questions of who or what makes the internet tick and how to make it better behaved were delegates representing almost everybody at NETmundial in Sao Paulo, Brazil last week, officially the Global Multi-stakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance. Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff proposed the gathering in response to allegations the United States National Security Agency (NSA) had been listening to her phone calls and collecting her emails. Privacy and internet governance have long been on a collision course. 

“The internet we want will only be possible in a scenario of respect for human rights, in particular the right to privacy and freedom of expression,” said President Rousseff to the assembled delegates. “We can no longer put off the need to globalize the institutions responsible for the key functions of the internet today.”

Her point was that those “key functions” should be taken from US institutions, like domain names registry ICANN, and placed securely with a new multi-stakeholder institution. Other US institutions with leading roles in global internet development – from Google and Facebook to Amazon, Microsoft and every major telecom – were wary, diplomatically, at the possibility. “Our focus is on making sure the net stays free and open,” said Google lobbyist Ross LaJeunesse, quoted by Reuters (April 25).

For such a big subject at a short two-day meeting, the 800 plus delegates – some in Sao Paulo, others participating remotely, via web links, of course - were presented draft outcome statements to debate and negotiate. Delegate desires were, and remain, wide-ranging. Civil society representative and free expression advocate Article 19 wanted strong endorsement of net neutrality, the principle preventing ISPs from multi-tiered pricing based on usage. Net neutrality was relegated in the final document to a “non-exhaustive list” of point to ponder further.

The main discussion point, internet governance, allowed considerable free expression. Delegates representing the Russian Federation, China, India and Saudi Arabia proposed placing the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) within the United Nations (UN) or UN agency International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The “internet is the right of governments and that public policy should be developed by all governments on an equal footing,” said Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Abdulaziz Aldarrab. The State’s hand is “an imperative that can’t be ignored,” said India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy secretary Vinay Kwatra. The internet “is used for transactions of core economic, civil and defense assets at national level and in the process, countries are placing their core national security interests in this medium.” 

Also favoring a shift in internet governance toward a new multi-governmental agency was Russian Federation Communication Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, arguing the disputable point that ICANN is “not a globally respected international global organization.”  His preference is for a “specific international structure aimed at development and introduction of international norms and other standards on internet governance…within the framework of the UN or ITU.”

Separately, Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin called on Russians not to use Google because the internet is “a CIA project,” reported AFP (April 24). Google web traffic “goes through servers that are in the States” where “everything is monitored,” he said to a media conference in St. Petersburg. The internet and all other means of information distribution in Russia is firmly under the government thumb.

"The USA doesn't control the internet,” said internet legend and Google vice president Vint Cerf at the Sao Paulo meeting. “That's a myth. It may have when I was running the program 40 years ago, yes. But not anymore.”

The prevailing wind, as NetMundial wound down, was toward “multi-stakeholderism” – a term yet to be defined – and away from government control of the internet, government serveilance programs being the major issue.  “The industry is satisfied,” said NETmundial chairperson Virgilio Almeida. “Google and Facebook see this as a very positive debate because it not only involves governments. It's a debate that includes everyone.”

There will be more meetings. The IGF is set to gather later this year in Istanbul, Turkey. Amnesty International has condemned the prosecution of 29 Twitter users for defaming Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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