Internet Democracy Project

In September 2015, news reports noted that India had pitched with the United States (US) for a root zone server to be placed within the country. What to make of India’s request? In order to fully understand the weight, import and potential consequences of India’s stance, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the root zone, its functioning and its management, as well as of India’s historical positions on related issues. In this paper, we aim to aid such understanding in several steps as we examine both a variety of technical aspects involved and the larger politico-strategic context in which India’s bid has to be understood.    More

As again became clear in the recently concluded WSIS+10 Overall Review, governments around the world, including India’s, continue to argue that cybersecurity should be under the primary purview of the state. Many however, believe that multistakeholderism rather than multilateralism is the way forward in cybersecurity, as has been the case in Internet governance. What is the kind of dominant role then that the government is poised to play? Why do we need multistakeholderism in cybersecurity? In this post, we investigate these questions. As it is the civil society’s role that is most often questioned, we focus on their role in particular.   More

In an open letter to the leaders of the world’s governments signed by various organizations, companies, and individuals, we encourage them to support the safety and security of users, companies, and governments by strengthening the integrity of communications and systems. In doing so, governments should reject laws, policies, or other mandates or practices, including secret agreements with companies, that limit access to or undermine encryption and other secure communications tools and technologies. Sign the letter here.   More

Comments were invited on the recently released Draft Outcome Document for the WSIS+10 Review process from UN member states, observer states and all relevant stakeholders till the 17^th of November 2015. The Internet Democracy Project submitted comments on all the sections of the document. We also contributed once again to a joint civil society submission that resulted from the Civil Society Strategy Meeting that we co-organised at IGF 2015.   More

At the conclusion of the 10^th Internet Governance Forum on 13 November 2015, a group of over 25 organizations came together to issue a joint statement on the WSIS+10 Review process. You can join the list of signatories by signing the statement either on behalf of an organization or as an individual.   More

The draft outcome document for the WSIS+10 Review was recently made available, which will form the basis for textual negotiations during the informal consultations that are scheduled to take place in November-end preceeding the December High-Level Meeting of the UNGA on the WSIS+10 Review. We compared the draft outcome document with the joint civil society submission on the zero-draft to understand what all concerns of the global civil society groups have been addressed and what all concerns remain going forward.    More

Comments were invited on the Zero-Draft for the WSIS+10 Review from UN member-states, observer states and all relevant stakeholders until 15^th October 2015. The Internet Democracy Project submitted comments in the form of specific text proposals on all the different sections of the zero-draft. We also joined in on a submission by a diverse number of global civil society groups that participated in the Civil Society Coordination Event preceding the Second Informal Stakeholders Consultation and the Second Preparatory Meeting of the WSIS+10 Review in New York.   More

The Internet Democracy Project joined 74 other human rights, digital rights, LGBTQ, and women’s rights advocates to come together as a broad global coalition and send an open letter to Facebook explaining exactly why their ​‘real-name’ policy is broken, and how Facebook can mitigate the damage it causes. In addition to our coalition letter to Facebook, there is also a petition to Facebook in support of our demands, for which you can sign up here. With your help, we can make sure Facebook is truly a safe and accessible place for those who truly make it a rich community: women and girls, human rights activists, LGBTQ people, domestic violence survivors, targets of harassment, and more.   More

Until Friday 18 September, comments were invited on the UN Non-Paper for the WSIS+10 Review from UN member-states, observer states and all relevant stakeholders. The Internet Democracy Project submitted comments in the form of specific text proposals on all the different sections of the non-paper, namely Digital Divide, ICT for Development, Human Rights, Internet Governance, Cyberspace and Follow-Up and Review. We also joined forces with other civil society organisations and representatives to submit comments on behalf of Asia-Pacific and BRICS.   More

From 3 to 5 September, a group of 38 people from 15 different countries participated in the Asian Regional Consultation on the WSIS+10 Review, co-oganised by the Internet Democracy Project. While the meeting originally aimed to gather views on a non-paper drafted by the UN appointed co-facilitators of the WSIS+10 Review process, a delay in the public release of this non-paper made this not possible. Nevertheless, the group collectively drafted and released a statement with key messages, based on the rich discussions it had around the topics of development, human rights and Internet governance. We have reproduced the statement below, as well as on the event website.   More