Internet Democracy Project

During the WSIS+10 High Level Event, the Internet Democracy Project was given the opportunity to deliver a policy statement in the meeting’s High-Level track. As an active participant in the preparatory process, the WSIS+10 Multistakeholder Preparatory Platform (MPP), we used this opportunity to critically reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the outcome documents that were developed by the MPP and endorsed at the High-Level Event. These documents are the ​‘WSIS+10 Statement on Implementation of WSIS Outcomes’ and the ​‘WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015’. Below is what we said. The statement can also be found on the official website of the WSIS+10 High Level Event.   More

The NETmundial that took place in Sao Paulo on 23 and 24 April has been widely heralded as a success. In particular, it has been argued that the meeting illustrated the viability of the multistakeholder model. But in civil society in particular, while the NETmundial is believed to represent many gains, assessments have been more nuanced, argues Anja Kovacs in a commentary first published in Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation.   More

The Internet Democracy Project worked closely with other civil society organisations from around the world to make two submissions to the NETmundial meeting in Brazil in April 2014. The second submission is on institutional mechanisms for the further evolution of the Internet governance ecosystem, and can be accessed on the NETmundial site here. The full list of signatories to this submission can be found here. We reproduce the text of the submission below.   More

The Internet Democracy Project worked closely with other civil society organisations from around the world to make two submissions to the NETmundial meeting in Brazil in April 2014. The first submission is on Internet governance principles and human rights, and can be accessed on the NETmundial site here. The full list of signatories to this submission can be found here. We reproduce the text of the submission below.   More

The UN CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (WGEC) is due to submit to the CSTD by May 2014 a report with recommendations on how to fully implement the World Summit on the Information Society’s mandate on enhanced cooperation. As an on-site observer at the third meeting of the WGEC, which was devoted to the formulation of such recommendations, the Internet Democracy Project made, together with several other civil society representatives and observers present there, a series of recommendations for the consideration of the WGEC in relation to section B of its report, on public policy issues and possible mechanisms to address them. The recommendations draw on the Internet Democracy Project’s August 2013 submission to the WGEC, as well as on work we have done since then. They were submitted through Joy Liddicoat from the Association for Progressive Communications, one of the official civil society representatives in the WGEC.    More

A wide range of Indian civil society organisations active in the field of Internet governance, including the Internet Democracy Project, have come together to protest the appointment of Ms. Subi Chaturvedi as the civil society co-chair of the NetMundial meeting in Brazil this April. We believe that Ms. Chaturvedi does not possess the experience, expertise or standing in national and international civil society networks in Internet governance that is required for a position of such responsibility. The letter was sent to the Chair of the meeting, Prof. Virgilio Almeida, today. The full text of the letter can be found below.    More

The Internet Democracy Project joined a number of other civil society organisations from around the world in writing a letter to the two co-facilitators appointed by the UN General Assembly to convene open intergovernmental consultations to finalise the modalities for the overall WSIS review. The UN General Assembly resorted to this move after it failed to reach agreement on the WSIS modalities by its earlier deadline of December 2013. The two co-facilitators that have been appointed are Tunisia and Finland. The civil society letter to the co-facilitators requests them to ensure that civil society will have an opportunity to input into the informal consultations that they are leading as well to be able to engage more formally throughout the preparatory process for the overall review. The full text of the letter can be found below. If you would like to endorse it, you can do so here.   More

The Internet Democracy Project has supported a submission made through the Best Bits platform by civil society organisations from around the world to the organisers of the NETmundial meeting in Brazil in April 2014. The submission follows-up on an earlier letter on related issues by suggesting a range of concrete procedures that can be adopted by the meeting to facilitate purposeful deliberation and focused outcomes. The full list of signatories to the current submission can be found here.   More

Debates about ​‘enhanced cooperation’ are, at their heart, debates about how Internet-related public policy is made, and what role different stakeholders can play in developing those policies. The outcomes that will emerge from several processes that are currently attempting to address these questions will likely shape how future Internet challenges are framed and how they can be addressed, including whether civil society will be in the room or not. In an effort to understand the concerns about the current Internet governance régime and the proposed solutions that are on the table, this paper brings into a conversation Grace Githaiga from Kenya, Joana Varon Ferraz from Brazil and Anja Kovacs from India with Lea Kaspar from the UK, to analyse the concept of enhanced cooperation and arguments around it. The paper then goes on to suggest a way towards formalising a distributed model of Internet governance.   More

Recent events at the UN CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation give the strong impression that this is indeed the case.    More