An open, free, secure and global internet requires effective ‘internet governance’
The internet has transformed our world, connecting people and businesses across borders, and enabling innovation and progress. It is a powerful tool for social, economic and cultural development, and underpins all aspects of daily life for many.
Despite the internet’s importance, most users will never spare a thought to why or how it works, and who makes it work. The internet, as a network of networks, is governed through collaboration within and between a set of distributed and overlapping national, regional and global organisations and processes. This global internet governance system ensures that the internet we have continues to exist and work effectively.
Much of this efficacy can be attributed to the multi-stakeholder approach that is taken in many internet governance spaces and processes. The multi-stakeholder model sees governments, the private sector, academia, the technical community and civil society all participate in the governance of the internet. They all share their interests and ideas, and play a role in decision-making.
This is a proven model for responding to the complex and dynamic policy and technical challenges that the internet has presented, and it leads to outcomes that actually work, that have considered a full range of perspectives and that have broad support.
Internet governance is at an inflection point and the multi-stakeholder model is at risk
As the internet has become increasingly central to societies and economies, some governments have started to seek greater control over its governance, with debates increasingly influenced by geo-political power dynamics.
Between now and the close of 2025, a number of dialogues on the future of global internet governance will take place that could result in significant and irreversible changes to the current multi-stakeholder model.
One of these processes is the United Nations (UN) Global Digital Compact (GDC), expected to be agreed at the Summit of the Future in September 2024. The GDC will “outline shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future”. Negotiations for the GDC between Member States of the UN are about to start, and a zero draft has been released.
The other UN process is the 20-year review of the 2003-2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) due to take place in 2025. The original WSIS process formalised UN recognition of the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance and set up the IGF as a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue.
WSIS+20 will see UN Member States consider whether to extend the mandate of the IGF. A specific concern is that the creation of a proposed Digital Cooperation Forum, which would centre governments in dialogues about the internet, in the GDC could mean that Member States do not renew the mandate of the IGF at WSIS+20.
Sitting alongside these UN processes are other opportunities to discuss the future of global internet governance. One of the most significant is the upcoming NETmundial+10 which is a rare chance for all stakeholders to discuss the global internet governance system itself and how we can improve and evolve the multi-stakeholder model.
If multi-stakeholder internet governance is weakened, so is the internet
The key risk is that the outcomes of these UN processes will weaken the existing broad multi-stakeholder model of internet governance in favour of an increased role for one stakeholder, governments. This risks not only the collaboration and consensus benefits associated with the model itself, but also the universality, openness, and freedom of the internet that the broad multi-stakeholder model underpins.
An increased role for governments would likely mean a reduction in the role of non-government stakeholders, including the technical community. This risks internet related decision-making being led by individual nation-based political interests, without the transparency and accountability that the multi-stakeholder approach demands.
Reducing the role of the technical community would mean critical decisions on how the internet develops were made without the specialised insights and expertise of the technical community, which could undermine the overall open, seamless operations of the internet.
An informal coalition to defend and improve an approach to internet governance that supports the internet we want
The multi-stakeholder model of internet governance that currently exists is not set in stone. Its foundational materials are a mixture of norms, political agreements and trust. If we want an open, free, global and interoperable internet, we must step up to defend and evolve the multi-stakeholder approach that underpins that.
It can and will change if it is not defended by those who recognise that different forms of internet governance produce different internets.
So far however, there has been limited coordination and activation by the internet technical community (and other stakeholders) to respond to these debates and issues. Concerned by this gap, auDA has been working with CIRA, InternetNZ and Nominet to establish an informal coalition of aligned members of global internet technical community.
This coalition is looking for participation from around the world. Its purpose is to support the capacity of members to engage in the current internet governance dialogues and processes, with a view to defend and improve the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance as a critical foundation of an open, free and interoperable internet.
The work of the coalition has begun
Some initial meetings with other interested parties have already taken place in multi-stakeholder fora, such as at ICANN79 (San Juan). auDA, CIRA, Nominet, and InternetNZ also developed a joint response to the call for written inputs for the Global Digital Compact (closed on March 8), and each organisation lodged an aligned submission separately. Read the text of the submission that auDA lodged.
This emerging coalition has set up a mailing list to share information on UN and related processes, and discuss opportunities for shared engagement and messaging. We’re also developing a Statement of Purpose for the coalition so that interested parties can learn about and sign onto the coalition’s objectives.
Want to find out more?
If you’re interested in finding out more about the internet governance dialogues mentioned in this blog, or about this coalition, please contact the auDA Internet Governance and Policy team at internet.governance@auDA.org.au.
This blog post has been coauthored by auDA, CIRA, InternetNZ and Nominet.