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Internet governance and development

Nearly two years after the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) took up the question in Geneva, the international community is yet to arrive at a consensus on creating a framework to manage the Internet. All countries today recognise the fundamental and growing role of the Internet as a facilitator of governance, commerce, and communication. Many nations want a multilateral model of management for the Internet and also see a role for themselves in it. Their demand has grown stronger since the Geneva summit, much to the disappointment of the United States, which is attempting to retain its historical control of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the apparatus that controls the assigning of addresses and names to domains such as ".org" and ".com". Though it may be slow in coming, change appears to be inevitable. The European Union has now broken ranks with the U.S. to support the view that an alternative administrative structure is needed. U.S. opposition to a global cooperative model for Internet governance is on weak ground since it rests mainly on its apprehension that the "root servers" at the core of the Net, which make it possible to operate the domain name system, may be rendered insecure. America has also discounted suggestions for the handing over of this essentially non-profit and technical function to an appropriate agency under the United Nations. Such opposition is unlikely to convince China, India, Brazil and resource-poor countries that will press for a wider, development-oriented role for the Internet at the November meeting of the WSIS in Tunis.

The widely publicised debate on control of the Internet has unfortunately overshadowed discussions on several key challenges that countries must overcome to bridge the digital divide. The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) set up in Geneva has identified critical areas for action: reduction of Internet access costs for countries located away from international network backbones; standardised protocols for stability and security of the Net; recognition of the right to freedom of expression; data protection and privacy; consumer rights; and encouragement of multilingualism. The World Summit has also acknowledged that many countries need help to build the capacities necessary to use the Internet for improved delivery of healthcare, education, and citizen services. Any effort to overcome such severe constraints requires active assistance from a multilateral body equipped with the requisite resources. The WSIS agenda for the Tunis summit rightly emphasises such concerns. National governments must heed its call to all stakeholders — the administration, the private sector and civil society — to share ideas, technological solutions and resources towards this unified vision of progress. The least that they should hope to achieve at Tunis is the creation of a permanent global forum that will aid countries in the use of Internet and information technologies for development.

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