Centre for Internet and Society

NETmundial - Contributions by Types of Organisation

sumandro — 2014-04-25T09:57:11Z

This set of analysis of the contributions submitted to NETmundial 2014 is part of the effort by the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India, to enable productive discussions of the critical internet governance issues at the meeting and elsewhere.

This Sankey diagram shows all the countries/regions from where contributions have come in on the left side, and all the various types of organisations on the right side. Use the mouse cursor to hover over a country to see what proportion of the submissions from that country has come from which type of organisation, or hover over an organisation type to see what proportion of submission from such organisations have come in from which countries.

The height of the blue bars next to the country/region names and organisation types indicate at the respective proportions among all the contributions.

Certain submissions have been contributed by global organisations, such as Internet Society, ICANN and Commonwealth agencies. These submissions have been included in the 'Global' division in the above chart.

Created by Sumandro using Google Charts.
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The Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India, is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness, and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

The visualisations are done by Sumandro Chattapadhyay, based on data compilation and analysis by Jyoti Pandey, and with data entry suport from Chandrasekhar.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-contributions-by-types-of-organisation

NETmundial - Contributions by Countries of Origin

sumandro — 2014-04-25T09:55:43Z

Created by Sumandro using Google Charts.
Google Terms of Use and Data Policy.
Download the data.

This treemap chart divides up contributions submitted to NETmundial 2014 into their countries of origin, which are also clustered into regional divisions. The size of the rectangles indicate the total number of submissions from the respective region/country.

Right click on the regions to see the division of submissions from the countries within that region. Left click to go back.

Certain submissions have been contributed by global organisations, such as Internet Society, ICANN and Commonwealth agencies. These submissions have been included in the 'Global' division in the above chart. Also, Russia has been included within Europe, and China has been included within East Asia.

The visualisations are done by Sumandro Chattapadhyay, based on data compilation and analysis by Jyoti Pandey, and with data entry suport from Chandrasekhar.

All code, content and data is co-owned by the author(s) and Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India, and shared under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 India license.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-contributions-by-countries-of-origin

NETmundial - Comparing Appearance of Fifty Most Frequent Words

sumandro — 2014-04-25T09:59:13Z

Image above: Comparing Absolute Appearance of Fifty Most Frequent Words

Image above: Comparing Relative Appearance of Fifty Most Frequent Words

Created by Sumandro using R.
Download the R code.
Download the data.

These heatmaps compare the appearance of fifty most frequently appearing words (for all 187 contributions) across the contributions made by different types of organisation. Click on them to see the larger images. Hit *escape* to come back to this page.

The first heatmap shows the absolute appearance of the words -- that is the total number of times each word appears in contributions by a type of organisation.

The second heatmap shows the relative appearance of the words -- that is the ratio of the word's appearance in contribution by a type of organisation divided by total number of contributions by that type of organisation.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/net-mundial-comparing-appearance-of-fifty-most-frequent-words

Net Freedom Campaign Loses its Way

sunil — 2014-05-27T11:07:04Z

A recent global meet was a victory for governments and the private sector over civil society interests.

The article was published in the Hindu Businessline on May 10, 2014.

One word to describe NetMundial: Disappointing! Why? Because despite the promise, human rights on the Internet are still insufficiently protected. Snowden’s revelations starting last June threw the global Internet governance processes into crisis.

Things came to a head in October, when Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, horrified to learn that she was under NSA surveillance for economic reasons, called for the organisation of a global conference called NetMundial to accelerate Internet governance reform.

The NetMundial was held in São Paulo on April 23-24 this year. The result was a statement described as “the non-binding outcome of a bottom-up, open, and participatory process involving … governments, private sector, civil society, technical community, and academia from around the world.” In other words — it is international soft law with no enforcement mechanisms.

The statement emerges from “broad consensus”, meaning governments such as India, Cuba and Russia and civil society representatives expressed deep dissatisfaction at the closing plenary. Unlike an international binding law, only time will tell whether each member of the different stakeholder groups will regulate itself.

Again, not easy, because the outcome document does not specifically prescribe what each stakeholder can or cannot do — it only says what internet governance (IG) should or should not be. And finally, there’s no global consensus yet on the scope of IG. The substantive consensus was disappointing in four important ways:

Mass surveillance : Civil society was hoping that the statement would make mass surveillance illegal. After all, global violation of the right to privacy by the US was the raison d'être of the conference.

Instead, the statement legitimised “mass surveillance, interception and collection” as long as it was done in compliance with international human rights law. This was clearly the most disastrous outcome.

Access to knowledge: The conference was not supposed to expand intellectual property rights (IPR) or enforcement of these rights. After all, a multilateral forum, WIPO, was meant to address these concerns. But in the days before the conference the rights-holders lobby went into overdrive and civil society was caught unprepared.

The end result — “freedom of information and access to information” or right to information in India was qualified “with rights of authors and creators”. The right to information laws across the world, including in India, contains almost a dozen exemptions, including IPR. The only thing to be grateful for is that this limitation did not find its way into the language for freedom of expression.

Intermediary liability: The language that limits liability for intermediaries basically provides for a private censorship regime without judicial oversight, and without explicit language protecting the rights to freedom of expression and privacy. Even though the private sector chants Hillary Clinton's Internet freedom mantra — they only care for their own bottomlines.

Net neutrality: Even though there was little global consensus, some optimistic sections of civil society were hoping that domestic best practice on network neutrality in Brazil’s Internet Bill of Right — also known as Marco Civil, that was signed into law during the inaugural ceremony of NetMundial — would make it to the statement. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

For almost a decade since the debate between the multi-stakeholder and multilateral model started, the multi-stakeholder model had produced absolutely nothing outside ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a non-profit body), its technical fraternity and the standard-setting bodies.

The multi-stakeholder model is governance with the participation (and consent — depending on who you ask) of those stakeholders who are governed. In contrast, in the multilateral system, participation is limited to nation-states.

Civil society divisions

The inability of multi-stakeholderism to deliver also resulted in the fragmentation of global civil society regulars at Internet Governance Forums.

But in the run-up to NetMundial more divisions began to appear. If we ignore nuances — we could divide them into three groups. One, the ‘outsiders’ who are best exemplified by Jérémie Zimmermann of the La Quadrature du Net. Jérémie ran an online campaign, organised a protest during the conference and did everything he could to prevent NetMundial from being sanctified by civil society consensus.

Two, the ‘process geeks’ — for these individuals and organisations process was more important than principles. Most of them were as deeply invested in the multi-stakeholder model as ICANN and the US government and some who have been riding the ICANN gravy train for years.

Even worse, some were suspected of being astroturfers bootstrapped by the private sector and the technical community. None of them were willing to rock the boat. For the ‘process geeks’, seeing politicians and bureaucrats queue up like civil society to speak at the mike was the crowning achievement.

Three, the ‘principles geeks’ perhaps best exemplified by the Just Net Coalition who privileged principles over process. Divisions were also beginning to sharpen within the private sector. For example, Neville Roy Singham, CEO of Thoughtworks, agreed more with civil society than he did with other members of the private sector in his interventions.

In short, the ‘outsiders’ couldn't care less about the outcome and will do everything to discredit it, the ‘process geeks’ stood in ovation when the outcome document was read at the closing plenary and the ‘principles geeks’ returned devastated.

For the multi-stakeholder model to survive it must advance democratic values, not undermine them.

This will only happen if there is greater transparency and accountability. Individuals, organisations and consortia that participate in Internet governance processes need to disclose lists of donors including those that sponsor travel to these meetings.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/the-hindu-business-line-may-10-2014-sunil-abraham-net-freedom-campaign-loses-its-way

India for inclusive internet governance

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T10:36:52Z

India wants "core internet infrastructure" to be part of an international legal system that would accommodate governments, civil society and other stakeholders. In typical Indian diplomatic style, its position can be interpreted to mean everything and nothing.

The article by Indrani Bagchi published in the Times of India on April 25, 2014 quotes Sunil Abraham.

An MEA team, led by joint secretary Vinay Kwatra, told Net Mundial (forum for internet governance) in Brazil on Thursday, "The elements of India's approach on internet governance respond to its growing complexity and rests in supporting the dynamism, security and openness of a single and unfragmented cyberspace. We also support innovation and robust private sector investment to augment internet's continuing growth and evolution."

The Indian position is essentially an MEA position, because there has been little prior inter-agency consultation in the government. In fact, while the MEA had decided upon its team almost a month ago, the department of information technology woke up only last week. It was on Friday that the nodal ministry for IT-related issues even agreed to send a team to Brazil on Monday- the same team that the MEA was sending. If nothing else, sources said, this only highlighted the lack of seriousness within the Indian system.

Kwatra said internet should have a democratic governing system involving everyone, which would essentially mean creating a parallel international system. While India does not want the status quo to continue, there is no clarity whether it favours a multilateral or a multi-stakeholder system. India, like China, wants a strong state presence in the decision-making process of internet governance because "it is used for transactions of core economic, civil and defence assets at national level and in the process, countries are placing their core national security interests in this medium". On the other hand, it wants unfettered access to knowledge and technology as a nation-building and governance tool.

Additionally, India wants non-governmental stakeholders to be properly audited and a "clear delineation of principles governing their participation, including their accountability, representativeness, transparency and inclusiveness". There is a crying need for India to clearly define the future it expects to thrive in.

Sunil Abhraham of Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society says India should take the lead in defining new internet rules, keeping its future in mind. "We could use patent pools and compulsory licensing to provide affordable and innovative digital hardware to the developing world. This would ensure that rights-holders, innovators, manufactures, consumers and government would all benefit ... We could explore flat-fee licensing models like a broadband copyright cess or levy to ensure that users get content at affordable rates and rights-holders get some royalty from all internet users in India. This will go a long way in undermining the copyright enforcement-based censorship regime that has been established by the US. We could enact a world-class privacy law and establish an independent, autonomous and proactive privacy commissioner who will keep both private and state actors on a short lease. We need a scientific, targeted surveillance regime that is in compliance with human rights principles. This will make India simultaneously an IP and privacy haven and thereby attract huge investment from the private sector, and also earn the goodwill of the global civil society and independent media."

This is more than the Indian government has thought of.

While no binding decisions are expected from Brazil this week, the high profile event is expected to trigger a high-level debate on possible reforms. India, say officials, needs to come up with concrete proposals. This is imperative after the US made two crucial decisions on internet governance this year. In March the US announced that by September 2015 it would give up oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based non-profit group, that assigns domain names. But the US is clear it will not hand over the levers to any organization that can be controlled by any other country. This week, the US' FCC dealt a body blow to the concept of "net neutrality" (which essentially functions on the premise that access to the internet is the same for everyone) by allowing companies like Disney and Google to pay for premium internet speeds.

Countries like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia (may be even Iran) seek to control net access for their citizens as a measure of political control. Second, cyber offensive by countries which are ramping up capacity in these fields could take over internet governance structures if they are not crafted carefully enough. If the US is relinquishing control over ICANN, the next global battle is likely to be over who takes over that mantle. This makes it important to get net governance right. At least China has a plan: It wants the UN to take control. India wants a bit of everything, without actually giving it a shape, making it virtually impossible to shape the debate.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-april-25-indrani-bagchi-india-for-inclusive-internet-governance

Civil Society Pushes for Privacy Panel

praskrishna — 2014-05-27T11:39:20Z

The article was published in the Times of India on May 6, 2014. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

Civil society organizations are pushing for a 'privacy commission' to provide protection to individuals from illegal breach of their privacy, with guidelines imposing penal sanction against the violators. This assumes significance

This assumes significance at a time when the Centre has decided to set up a judicial panel to probe the snoopgate scandal wherein the BJP government in Gujarat was allegedly involved in illegal surveillance of a woman architect and especially when the Right to Privacy Bill is pending in Parliament.

However, industry consortia, including CII and FICCI, prefer lesser regulation, though calling for a cautious approach.

Among civil society organizations pressing for a stringent privacy bill is the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), the only representative from Kerala to attend the NETmundial conference held recently in Brazil. The meet focused on privacy issues to ensure basic human rights, including freedom of expression.

NETmundial is the first step towards pushing for a privacy law against the snooping and spying on individuals by those in power, including agencies within and outside the country Privacy guidelines should be clear as to what data can be collected without infringing on the dignity of an individual as 'data' represents the duration of a call, while 'metadata' reveals the content of the caH," said ICFOSS director SatishBabu.

Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), another NETmundial participant, also stands for a strong privacy law. "The two-day conference that concluded on April 24 was a baby step towards a privacy law with a road map for global internet governance. It is the first step towards a multi-stakeholder model offering an equal footing for all civil society organizations, academia, government, private sector and the UN fora," said CIS executive director Sunil Abraham

“We are pushing for a privacy law in the country aimed at national privacy regulation and constituting a privacy commission on the lines of the information commission," he added.

Click to read the full story

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-may-6-2014-laxmi-ajai-prasanna-civil-society-pushes-for-privacy-panel

CIS Comments: Enhancing ICANN Accountability

geetha — 2014-06-10T13:03:57Z

On May 6, 2014, ICANN published a call for public comments on "Enhancing ICANN Accountability". This comes in the wake of the IANA stewardship transition spearheaded by ICANN and related concerns of ICANN's external and internal accountability mechanisms. Centre for Internet and Society contributed to the call for comments.

Introduction:

On March 14, 2014, the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced its intent to transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multi-stakeholder Internet governance community. ICANN was tasked with the development of a proposal for transition of IANA stewardship, for which ICANN subsequently called for public comments. At NETmundial, ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé acknowledged that the IANA stewardship transition and improved ICANN accountability were inter-related issues, and announced the impending launch of a process to strengthen and enhance ICANN accountability in the absence of US government oversight. The subsequent call for public comments on “Enhancing ICANN Accountability” may be found here.

Suggestions for improved accountability:

In the event, Centre for Internet and Society (“CIS”) wishes to limit its suggestions for improved ICANN accountability to matters of reactive or responsive transparency on the part of ICANN to the global multi-stakeholder community. We propose the creation and implementation of a robust “freedom or right to information” process from ICANN, accompanied by an independent review mechanism.

Article III of ICANN Bye-laws note that “ICANN and its constituent bodies shall operate to the maximum extent feasible in an open and transparent manner and consistent with procedures designed to ensure fairness”. As part of this, Article III(2) note that ICANN shall make publicly available information on, inter alia, ICANN’s budget, annual audit, financial contributors and the amount of their contributions, as well as information on accountability mechanisms and the outcome of specific requests and complaints regarding the same. Such accountability mechanisms include reconsideration (Article IV(2)), independent review of Board actions (Article IV(3)), periodic reviews (Article IV(4)) and the Ombudsman (Article V).

Further, ICANN’s Documentary Information Disclosure Policy (“DIDP”) sets forth a process by which members of the public may request information “not already publicly available”. ICANN may respond (either affirmatively or in denial) to such requests within 30 days. Appeals to denials under the DIDP are available under the reconsideration or independent review procedures, to the extent applicable.

While ICANN has historically been prompt in its response to DIDP Requests, CIS is of the view that absent the commitments in the AoC following IANA stewardship transition, it would be desirable to amend and strengthen Response and Appeal procedures for DIDP and other, broader disclosures. Our concerns stem from the fact that, first, the substantive scope of appeal under the DIDP, on the basis of documents requested, is unclear (say, contracts or financial documents regarding payments to Registries or Registrars, or a detailed, granular break-up of ICANN’s revenue and expenditures); and second, that grievances with decisions of the Board Governance Committee or the Independent Review Panel cannot be appealed.

Therefore, CIS proposes a mechanism based on “right to information” best practices, which results in transparent and accountable governance at governmental levels.

First, we propose that designated members of ICANN staff shoulder responsibility to respond to information requests. The identity of such members (information officers, say) ought to be made public, including in the response document.

Second, an independent, third party body should be constituted to sit in appeal over information officers’ decisions to provide or decline to provide information. Such body may be composed of nominated members from the global multi-stakeholder community, with adequate stakeholder-, regional- and gender-representation. However, such members should not have held prior positions in ICANN or its related organizations. During the appointed term of the body, the terms and conditions of service ought to remain beyond the purview of ICANN, similar to globally accepted principles of an independent judiciary. For instance, the Constitution of India forbids any disadvantageous alteration of privileges and allowances of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts during tenure.

Third, and importantly, punitive measures ought to follow unreasonable, unexplained or illegitimate denials of requests by ICANN information officers. In order to ensure compliance, penalties should be made continuing (a certain prescribed fine for each day of information-denial) on concerned officers. Such punitive measures are accepted, for instance, in Section 20 of India’s Right to Information Act, 2005, where the review body may impose continuing penalties on any defaulting officer.

Finally, exceptions to disclosure should be finite and time-bound. Any and all information exempted from disclosure should be clearly set out (and not merely as categories of exempted information). Further, all exempted information should be made public after a prescribed period of time (say, 1 year), after which any member of the public may request for the same if it continues to be unavailable.

CIS hopes that ICANN shall deliver on its promise to ensure and enhance its accountability and transparency to the global multi-stakeholder community. To that end, we hope our suggestions may be positively considered.

Comment repository:

All comments received by ICANN during the comment period (May 6, 2014 to June 6, 2014) may be found at this link.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-comments-enhancing-icann-accountability

Brazil passes Marco Civil; the US-FCC Alters its Stance on Net Neutrality

geetha — 2014-04-24T10:05:32Z

Hopes for the Internet rise and fall rapidly. Yesterday, on April 23, 2014, Marco Civil da Internet, the Brazilian Bill of Internet rights, was passed by the Brazilian Senate into law.

Marco Civil, on which we blogged previously, includes provisions for the protection of privacy and freedom of expression of all users, rules mandating net neutrality, etc. Brazil celebrated the beginning of NETmundial, a momentous first day about which Achal Prabhala blogs, with President Rousseff’s approval of the Marco Civil.

At about the same time, news broke that the US Federal Communications Commission is set to propose new net neutrality rules. In the wake of the Verizon net neutrality decision in January, the proposed new rules will prohibit Internet service providers such as Comcast from slowing down or blocking traffic to certain websites, but permit fast lane traffic for content providers who are willing to pay for it. This fast lane would prioritise traffic from content providers like Netflix and Youtube on commercially reasonable terms, and result in availability of video and other content at higher speeds or quality. An interesting turn-around, as Marco Civil expressly mandates net neutrality for all traffic.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/brazil-passes-marco-civil-us-fcc-alters-stance-on-net-neutrality

Accountability of ICANN

smarika — 2014-05-28T10:50:22Z

The issue of how to ensure the legitimacy and accountability of ICANN is a concern which finds voice in many of the proposals. Four broad stands can be gleaned from the submissions to NETmundial '14 on this issue.

The issue of how to ensure the legitimacy and accountability of ICANN is a concern which finds voice in many of the proposals. Generally speaking, the issue of representation, and legitimacy of ICANN members is a point which all proposals regarding ICANN accountability consider. The issue of funding also came up in several of the submissions. The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, Joint Contribution of Civil Society from Latin America, submissions from University of Gezira in Sudan and NIC Mexico, called for increased funding for participation of stakeholders from developing countries in ICANN and other multistakeholder meetings. The Government of Austria expressed concern over dwindling funding of IGF and called for improvement of the same. In this scenario of crunched funds, submissions by Article 19 and BestBits as well as Net Coalition proposed the use of a percentage of ICANN’s gTLD revenues to fund inclusive participation in the multistakeholder process.

Apart from these concerns, submissions to NetMundial '14 also raised a myriad of different issues around the functioning of ICANN. Nevertheless, four broad stands can be gleaned from the issue of accountability of ICANN. These are as follows:

I. Submissions which suggest that oversight over ICANN should end, and ICANN accountability should be internalised.

8 submissions to the NetMundial 2014 were of the opinion that ICANN should become an independent body with no oversight exercised by any other body on it. In other words, these proposals opposed the replacement of current US government oversight on ICANN, by oversight through any other body. In such a case, accountability of ICANN was sought to be ensured through strengthening multistakeholderism and reform within the ICANN structure.

Most of these submissions came from the civil society (4) or the technical community (2); 1 from Panel on Global Internet Cooperation and Governance Mechanisms, which identifies as “other”, and 1 from the Government of France. 3 of these proposals represent a global community, 2 come from North America or USA, 1 from France, 1 from New Zealand and 1 from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The ICANN model proposed in the submission from Internet Governance Project (IGP), from the North American civil society, found support among other contributors in this category. The proposal was based on the principle that oversight of ICANN must not be internationalised but ended. The rationale behind such proposal was that giving additional stakeholders besides the NTIA a say in IANA function and ICANN oversight will only politicise ICANN and make it a subject of possible geopolitical power struggles by governments, ultimately ignoring the interests of internet users all over the world. While calling for an end to ICANN oversight through any or all government agencies, the proposal also called for the strengthening of multistakeholderism within ICANN. This proposal was explicitly supported by InternetNZ, from the New Zealand technical community, in its proposal, as well as to quite an extent by Article 19 and BestBits, from the global civil society, in their proposal.

IGP’s submission also suggested whittling down of ICANN’s powers in order to separate management of IANA functions from ICANN’s present mandate. This is a point where the submissions in this category diverge. Submissions from IGP with Article 19 and BestBits, Association for Progressive Communications (APC) from the civil society and InternetNZ and Avri Doria, from the technical community, recommended the separation of IANA functions from the ICANN. The French Government submission, on the other hand, did not envisage separation of management IANA function from ICANN, but rather the internalisation of the former within the latter, even as proposing an independent and multistakeholder structure for ICANN with suitable accountability mechanisms for all stakeholders.

The submission from Article 19 and BestBits, in fact, suggested further narrowing of ICANN’s mandate by explicitly including a clause in its bylaws to prevent it from engaging in content regulation or conduct that could violate freedom of expression or privacy on the internet, including technical policy making involving trademarks and intellectual property. Such suggestions were made based on the fear that, if unregulated, ICANN might increasingly make its foray into public policy issues like content regulation, as happened in the .xxx controversy. Consequently, the submission from Article 19 and BestBits also suggested that ICANN’s bylaws include a provision whereby private parties can legally challenge ICANN’s actions on grounds of human rights violations before local courts or arbitration tribunals.

This approval for local dispute resolution when the submission agrees with the suitability of Californian law for ICANN incorporation is, however, likely to cause consternation amongst non-American stakeholders. While the submission is not averse to the idea of ICANN expanding its reach globally through creation of subsidiaries (preferably in western Europe), it also takes a firm stand on ICANN not moving its headquarters out of the US. The advantages of such status quo are seen in stability of current agreements with registrars etc., but the idea of ICANN being ultimately subject to Californian law and its courts is unlikely to go down well with other global stakeholders.

One concern found across board, but more explicitly in submissions of Article 19 and BestBits and Avri Doria was the strengthening of ICANN board by making it more representative and accountable through mechanisms of internal accountability like the ATRT2 Transparency and Accountability Review process. Avri Doria of USA, in her submission suggested, the improvement of accountability mechanisms in ICANN by supplementing the ATRT process with a strong appeals mechanism, as found in IETF, for accountability process and results with powers to remove officers from their roles if they do not fulfil their responsibilities. Strengthening of GAC within ICANN by making it more participatory and representative is another concern which is highlighted.

II. Submissions which suggest that oversight of ICANN should be transferred to a multilateral or intergovernmental body

A second, small category of 4 submissions argued that the oversight function of the ICANN should be transferred from the present unilateral U.S. government (NTIA) oversight, to oversight by all countries. This was suggested to counter the power imbalance exercised by one country over critical internet infrastructure, over others, by sharing oversight of ICANN with all others.

In their details, submissions in this category can be vague. While some of them envisioned transfer of ICANN control by the US Government to an intergovernmental body like the ITU, others do not specify the details of the transfer, but merely mention that ICANN oversight should be multilateral in nature. Submissions from CIPIT, part of the Kenyan academia and The Society for Knowledge Commons, civil society stakeholder covering India and Brazil, mentioned that the oversight of technical policy functions should be “multilateral” in nature, while the submission by the Government of Iran called for restructuring ICANN as an “international” organisation.

The submission by Swiss civil society organisation, Association for Proper Internet Governance, referred to the response by the Syrian representative in ITU to RFC sought by the US Department of Commerce, to bring ICANN in the aegis of ITU by signing of a MoU between the two entities, as far as technical policy decisions (eg. development of policies relating to operation of root servers and those relating to operation and administration of gTLDs and ccTLDs) are concerned. Such a proposal was found necessary in light of the non-binding advisory nature of GAC in ICANN, especially when technical policy decisions by ICANN have public policy implications. In such a scenario, the submission dubs it “strange” to relegate government to a subsidiary role within ICANN and “unusual (to say the least)” for governments to constitute a sub-committee of the board of a private company like ICANN. Consequently, the MoU between ITU and ICANN is sought to make GAC a group within ITU so as to strengthen its legitimacy and accountability.

III. Submissions which suggest that oversight of ICANN should be transferred to another body not intergovernmental in nature.

10 submissions suggested the transfer of ICANN oversight to a non-intergovernmental or multilateral body. 2 of these proposals came from governments and 1 from the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, which identifies as “other”, 3 from the private sector, 2 from civil society and 1 from technical community and academia each. Most of these proposals come from European stakeholders (5), 1 each from Brazil and Argentina, 1 from India, 1 from Nigeria, and 1 from the global civil society group, Just Net Coalition.

Like the last category, these submissions also expressed their dissatisfaction with the unilateral US Government oversight of ICANN, but suggested replacing it with a non-multilateral body. Details of the composition of such bodies vary. Some called for replacement by a technical body, other envision a wholly newly created multistakeholder body, yet others called for signing of the present ICANN AoC with US Government, by a number of stakeholders, which would not include just governments.

One such submission came from Portuguese academic, Luis Magalhaes, which called for the signature of ICANN AoCs with all the stakeholders in internet governance, thus effectively replacing oversight by NTIA to oversight by all stakeholders. This submission also expressed concern over the incorporation of ICANN under Californian law, and suggests that ICANN should be regulated in an international law framework, though without relinquishing its control to merely governments. Submission by the private sector stakeholder Orange Group also looked to expand the AoC of ICANN to include within it, the “ICANN community and stakeholders including Governments represented through the GAC.”

Private sector stakeholder from the UK, Nominet, similarly, called for wider engagement in the ICANN AoC and ensuring wider engagement for transparency and accountability in the AoC process. It also called to end ambiguity about the legal jurisdiction for ICANN, while including and strengthening ITU and IGF in the internet governance ecosystem. Submission by private player, Data Security Council of India, while endorsing “a multistakeholder model with defined roles of relevant stakeholders” was vaguer about the model it sought for ICANN. But it called for nomination of stakeholders by Governments rather than ICANN selecting them without transparency.

The Austrian Government submission, on the other hand, was more ambiguous. It envisaged the extension of AoCs regarding ICANN and IANA while ensuring “the full participation of all stakeholders, from both developed and developing countries, within their respective roles and responsibilities.” In its submission, the Government of Argentina sought to “promote the internationalisation of ICANN through a deep revision of the current structure,” and ensure “active representation from all regions and all actors in the ICANN structure, including representatives of governments on an equal footing,” especially in the structures of ICANN Board, SSAC and GNSO.

The submission by Brazilian Internet Steering Committee similarly, looked to export oversight to entities outside of ICANN in its submission, as long as such entities are recognised as representative of the international public interest. This was suggested with the rationale to avoid a situation where the same organisation is responsible is responsible for policy making as well as its implementation. The Committee also suggested strengthening of ATRT2 process, as well as reform of GNSO and of ALAC so that the latter can have transparent processes for nomination of members, as well as participate in policy development processes in GNSO, along with increased government participation in GNSO. It was also suggested that the number of ICANN Board seats allocated by NomCom should be reduced in order to increase slots for Board members directly elected by the SOs.

Other submissions offered a more detailed view into the composition of the oversight entity recommended to replace NTIA. The submission by global civil society organisation, Just Net Coalition, for example, proposed the formation of a “Internet Technical and Advisory Board” to discharge ICANN oversight function by replacing the present NTIA oversight role. In addition, this board was recommended to advice on public policy perspectives to various technical standards bodies, and thus act as the link between public policy bodies and these standards bodies. The composition of such a board was recommended to consist of people with specialised technical expertise but also with appropriate political legitimacy, ensured via a democratic process. 10-15 members were envisaged in such a board which could include 1 member from each of the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). 2-3 members from each of the 5 geographic regions as understood in the UN system to be selected through an appropriate process by the relevant technical standards bodies and/or country domain name bodies of all the countries of the respective region were suggested to be part of the board. It was preferred that these members would come from the top recognised technical academic bodies of each country/region, but the entire constitution of the board was left open to other suggestions in Just Net Coalition’s submission.

The technical community stakeholder, Nigeria Internet Registration Association, on the other hand, offered a rather confused proposal for the formation of a “World Internet Governance Organisation (WIGO),”envisaged as “a global organisation with equal participation of the Government, Private sector, Civil Society, Technical Community in a multi-stakeholder consensus building NET-NATIONS.” But while in the beginning the submission suggests a multistakeholder composition of WIGO, seemingly for oversight of ICANN, later the submission sparks the idea that ICANN itself should be changed to WIGO.

Global Geneva’s submission proposed to transfer ICANN oversight to a body called World Internet Forum, which, while part of the UN system, is envisioned as a multistakeholder venue for citizens globally, where constituencies are not governments. ICANN is allowed to pursue technical policy functions like gTLD management under the supervision of WIF, while not encroaching on public policy matters. IANA function is envisaged to be managed separately from the ICANN.

In many of these submissions, like those of Argentinian Government and Brazilian Internet Steering Committee emphasis was also paid on the strengthening of GAC, while taking into consideration stakeholders other than governments.

IV. Submissions which endorse globalisation and multistakeholder governance of ICANN but are vague about the specifics of such governance model

Lastly, there are submissions which call for the globalisation of ICANN and express their dissatisfaction with the U.S. Government oversight of it, while endorsing multistakeholder governance. However, these submissions are also vague about the details of such ICANN globalisation, and the structures in which it will be held accountable. 4 such submissions emerge from governments (Spain, Norway, Mexico and the European Commission), 6 from the private sector, 2 from the technical community, and 2 from the civil society. Europe leads in this category of proposals with 6 of these proposals emerging from there, 2 from Latin America and Mexico each (4 altogether), 1 from Kuwait, 1 from Japan, 1 from the NRO (identifying itself from Mauritius) and 1 from the global GSM Association of mobile operators.

A list of these submissions is provided below.

Sl.No.	Proposal No.	Name of Proposal	Organisation	Sector	Region	Link
	46	Norwegian Contribution to the Sao Paulo Meeting	Norwegian government	Government	Norway, Europe	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/norwegian-government/137
	50	Contribution from the GSM Association to the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance	GSMA	Private Sector	Global	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/contribution-from-the-gsm-association-to-the-global-multistakeholder-meeting-on-the-future-of-internet-governance/141
	51	Contribution of Telefonica to NETmundial	Telefonica, S.A.	Private Sector	Spain	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/contribution-of-telefonica-to-netmundial/143
	56	ETNO Contribution to NETmundial	ETNO [European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association]	Private Sector	Belgium	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/etno-contribution-to-netmundial/148
	64	Submission by AHCIET to the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance. NETmundial	AHCIET	Private Sector	Latin America	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/submission-by-ahciet-to-the-global-multistakeholder-meeting-on-the-future-of-internet-governance-netmundial/157
	70	Spanish Government Contribution to the Global Multi-stakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance	Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Spain	Government	Spain	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/multistakeholder-human-rights-stability-gac/165
	80	Roadmap for the Further Evolution of the Internet Governance Ecosystem	European Commission	Government	Europe	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/roadmap-for-the-further-evolution-of-the-internet-governance-ecosystem/177
10.	106	Submission on Internet Governance Principles and Roadmap for the Further Evolution of the Internet Governance Ecosystem	Kuwait Information Technology Society	Civil Society	Kuwait	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/kuwait-information-technology-society-kits-submission-on-internet-governance-principles-and-roadmap-for-the-further-evolution-of-the-internet-governance-ecosystem/214
	111	Content Submission by the Federal Government of Mexico	Secretara de Comunicaciones y Transportes, Mexico	Government	Mexico	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/content-submission-by-the-federal-government-of-mexico/219
10.	114	Better Understanding and Co-operation for Internet Governance Principles and Its Roadmap	Japan Internet Service Providers Association	Private Sector	Japan	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/better-understanding-cooperation-for-internet-governance-principles-its-roadmap/222
11.	116	Deutsche Telekom’s Contribution for to the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance	Deutsche Telekom AG	Private Sector	Germany/Europe	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/deutsche-telekom-s-contribution-for-to-the-global-multistakeholder-meeting-on-the-future-of-internet-governance/225
12.	135	Joint Contributions of Civil Society Organisations from Latin America to NetMundial	Group of individuals and Civil Society Organizations from Latin America	Civil Society	Latin America	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/joint-contributions-of-civil-society-organizations-from-latin-america-to-netmundial/251
13.	143	NRO Contribution to NETmundial	NRO (for AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, RIPE-NCC)	Technical Community	Mauritius	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/nro-contribution-to-netmundial/259
14.	183	NETmundial Content Submission- endorsed by NIC Mexico	NIC Mexico	Technical Community	Mexico	http://content.netmundial.br/contribution/netmundial-content-submission-endorsed-by-nic-mexico/302

***

A previous version of this post performed preliminary analysis of the NETmundial submissions. It may be found here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/accountability-of-icann

'India wants core internet infrastructure'

praskrishna — 2014-05-05T10:29:30Z

The article by Indrani Bagchi was published in the Times of India on April 24, 2014. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

An MEA team led by Vinay Kwatra, joint secretary told the Net Mundial in Brazil on Thursday, "The elements of India's approach on internet governance respond to its growing complexity and rests in supporting the dynamism, security and openness of a single and un-fragmented cyberspace. We also support innovation, and robust private sector investments to augment internet's continuing growth and evolution."

The Indian position is essentially an MEA position, because there has been little prior inter-agency consultation certainly in the government. In fact, while the MEA had decided upon its team almost a month ago, the Department of Information Technology only woke up last week.

It was only on Friday that the nodal ministry for IT-related issues even agreed to send a team to Brazil on Monday — the same team that the MEA was sending. If nothing else, sources said, this only highlighted the lack of seriousness within the Indian system.

In Brazil, Kwatra said internet should have a democratic governing system, involving everyone, which would essentially mean creating a parallel international system. The internet is essentially owned and led by the US, controlled by the fact that the overwhelming number of root servers are situated in that country. But after the Edward Snowden leaks on

NSA surveillance, the US' intentions and practices have come under a cloud.

While India does not want the status quo to continue, there is no clarity whether India favours a multilateral or a multi-stakeholder system. India, like China, wants a strong state presence in the decision making process of internet governance, because "it is used for transactions of core economic, civil and defence assets at national level and in the process, countries are placing their core national security interests in this medium." On the other hand, it wants unfettered access to knowledge and technology as a nation-building and governance tool.

Additionally, India wants non-governmental stakeholders to be properly audited "there should also be a clear delineation of principles governing their participation - including their accountability, representativeness, transparency, and inclusiveness. Clearly, it makes it even more important that we define the multistakeholderism."

There is a crying need for India to clearly define the future it expects to thrive in.

Sunil Abhraham of the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore says India should take the lead in defining new internet rules, keeping its future in mind. "We could use patent pools and compulsory licensing to provide affordable and innovative digital hardware to the developing world. This would ensure that rights-holders, innovators, manufactures, consumers and government would all benefit ... We could explore flat-fee licensing models like a broadband copyright cess or levy to ensure that users get content at affordable rates and rights-holders get some royalty from all internet users in India.

This will go a long way in undermining the copyright enforcement based censorship regime that has been established by the US. When it comes to privacy - we could enact a world-class privacy law and establish an independent, autonomous and proactive privacy commissioner who will keep both private and state actors on a short lease. Then we need a scientific, targeted surveillance regime that is in compliance with human rights principles. This will make India simultaneously an IP and privacy haven and thereby attract huge investment from the private sector, and also earn the goodwill of global civil society and independent media." This is more than the Indian government has thought of.

While no binding decisions are expected from Brazil this week, the high profile event is expected to trigger a high level debate on possible reforms. India, say officials, need to hone its position to come up with concrete proposals. This is imperative, after the US made two crucial decisions on internet governance this year.

In March the US announced by September 2015 it would give up oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned of Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit group based in California that assigns domain names. But the US is clear it will not hand over control to any organization that can be controlled by any other country. This week, the US' FCC has dealt a body blow to the concept of "net neutrality" (which essentially functions on the premise that access to the internet is the same for everyone) by allowing companies like Disney and Google to pay for premium internet speeds. Countries like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia (maybe even Iran) seek to control net access for their citizens as a measure of political control. Second, cyber offensives by countries who are ramping up capacity in these fields could take over internet governance structures if they are not crafted carefully enough. On the flip side, as Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society puts it, "The US censorship regime is really no better than China's. China censors political speech - US censors access to knowledge thanks to the intellectual property (IP) rightsholder lobby.."

If the US is relinquishing control over ICANN, the next global battle is likely to be over who takes over that mantle. Which, in turn, makes it important to get net governance right. At least China has a plan — it wants the UN to take control. India wants a bit of this and a bit of that, without actually giving it a shape, which makes it impossible for India to shape the future of the debate.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-times-of-india-april-24-2014-india-wants-core-internet-infrastructure