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NET REBOOTED!
The
two-day NETmundial conference starts a process that will completely change
the way the internet is run and used by 3 billion people on this planet
Call it
the Snowden Effect. Last July, as newspapers reported that the US National
Security Agency (NSA) was snooping on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff,
she immediately cancelled a state visit to the White House. As more documents
revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed that the US was spying
on Brazil’s state firms and collecting data about its citizens, Rousseff
blasted the Americans at the United Nations and announced a plan to hold a
global meeting on internet governance — who runs it and how. At the same
time, Rousseff began to push a bill, Marco Civil, in the country’s
parliament to protect people’s online rights. This sparked fears in
Washington that Brazil was trying to “Balkanize” the network which now
forms the backbone of the global economic order.
The internet’s moment of truth arrived this week as
representatives from 97 countries checked into the hotels of Brazil’s
financial capital to participate in NETmundial, the Global
Multi-stakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance. On April 23
and 24, diplomats and tech firm honchos locked horns with grizzly-haired
academics and geeks in bermudas at a glitzy hotel. Some 10 km away, at the
Sao Paulo Cultural Centre, civil society activists engaged in passionate
debates on surveillance, with Julian Assange joining in through a video
link from London.
Small Steps Towards Freedom
With the future of the Net being discussed in a Brazilian city someone
dubbed the meeting as the World Cup of the internet. But its scale was arguably
larger than any sporting spectacle: 1,500 delegates, 188 presentations; 30
global hubs; and thousands of tweets pouring in every minute. But the
discussions were as tricky as dribbling in a football game. While the
Americans worked hard to keep their “control” over the internet, the
Russians and the Chinese tackled them by seeking greater government say in
their own countries.
The drama became tense on Thursday when, at a media
conference in St Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin branded the
internet a “CIA project”. Till the last moment, nobody knew how the meet
would end: with a caipirinha for everyone or with no outcome document in
hand?
Even before experts began debating the new roadmap
Rousseff set the tone for the meeting in clear terms. “Internet governance
should be multipartite, transparent and open to all. The participation of
governments should occur with equality so that no country has more weight
than others,” Rousseff said in her opening speech. If that was not strong
enough a message to the US, Rousseff again condemned the mass spying
programmes. “These events are not acceptable, were not acceptable in the
past, and remain unacceptable today in that they are an affront to the free
nature of the internet as an open, democratic platform.”
Amid a strong anti-surveillance mood, NETmundial
ended with the “Sao Paulo Declaration” which stated that the internet
should be “free of government regulation and should be a fully
self-regulated space”. Though the document is legally non-binding and
processes are yet to be put in place to make the “multi-stakeholder” system
work, many see the meeting as a turning point. “There is a long way to go
before the internet is fully democratized, but a good beginning has been
made. The process of preparing a roadmap for the internet has started,”
said Neville Roy Singham, chairman and founder of ThoughtWorks, a
Chicago-based tech firm. “By talking against surveillance, the Brazilian
president has taken the lead in creating the new internet.”
Civil Society vs Big Companies
Sustained pressure from Brazil persuaded the US to announce in March
that it was giving up its control of internet activity though its
institutional links to ICANN, the internet’s governing authority. Though
Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said the US decision was “well overdue”, the
Americans made it clear that they would “not accept a proposal” for an
“inter-governmental organization” to replace ICANN. They instead proposed
to pass the duty for regulating the internet’s codes and numbering systems
to a “global multi-stakeholder community” by September 2015.
It was the issue of “multi-stakeholderism” that
turned the meeting into a bear pit, with delegates fighting over each word
to be included in the outcome document. Though the conference concluded
that “governments, companies, academics, technicians and users should all
have a say” in where the internet should go next, there were strong voices
demanding that follow-up deliberations should take place “within the UN framework”.
“When you’re taking in views, in consultation,
multistakeholderism works. But public policy decision-making, at a global
level, has to be a multilateral process,” said Parminder Jeet Singh of IT
for Change (India).
But despite strong resistance from civil society
groups, big internet companies — mostly Americans — emerged as big winners.
“The industry is satisfied,” said Virgilio Almeida, Brazil’s secretary for
IT policy who chaired the meeting. “Google and Facebook see this as a very
positive debate because it not only involves governments. It’s a debate
that includes everyone.”
But free internet activists had a different point
of view. “Fadi Chehade, the ICANN boss, closed NETmundial with these words:
‘In Africa we say if you want to go first, go alone, but if you want to go
far, go together.’ He should have added: And if you want to go nowhere, go
multi-stakeholder.”
However, in private, several internet activists
admitted that they managed “victory”. “The US has been forced to give up
its control of internet. There is a strong anti-surveillance sentiment in
the document. Now, we will try to make it truly democratic and free,” said
an activist who works on surveillance issues. “The internet would never be
same again.”
Sitting in an undisclosed location somewhere in
Moscow, Edward Snowden probably would be smiling, if not having the last
laugh.
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NEW CODES FOR THE NET
Multi-stakeholderism
Internet governance should be built on democratic multi-stakeholder
processes, ensuring meaningful and accountable participation of all
stakeholders
Governance
The development of international internet-related public policies
should enable the full and balanced participation of all stakeholders, and
made by consensus
Transparency
Decisions made must be easy to understand, processes must be clearly
documented and agreed procedures followed
Accountability
Governments have primary, legal and political accountability for the
protection of human rights
Inclusiveness and equitability
Internet governance institutions and processes should be inclusive and
open to all interested stakeholders
Distributed
Internet governance should be carried out through a distributed,
decentralized and multi-stakeholder ecosystem
Collaboration
Internet governance should be based on and encourage collaborative and
cooperative approaches that reflect the inputs and interests of
stakeholders
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