Internet Democracy Project

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

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

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

Through the Best Bits platform, the Internet Democracy Project has worked with civil society organisations from around the world to draft and submit an early statement to the meeting’s organisers on what we hope the proposed 2014 Internet governance summit in Brazil will address and which processes we believe are required to do so adequately. The full list of signatories to the statement can be found here.   More

On 21 October, 2013, a High Level Leaders Meeting took place in Bali on the day before the start of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The theme of the meeting was ​‘Global Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration for Achieving a Safe, Secure and Tolerant Cyberspace: Enabling Growth and Sustainable Development through Cyber Ethics’. Anja Kovacs was invited to address the meeting as a panelist. A lightly edited transcript of her comments, which urged the gathering to give priority to human rights and multistakeholderism over and above cyber ethics, can be found below.    More

Earlier this week, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff delivered a rousing speech in the UN General Assembly, slamming the USA for the NSA’s spying, emphasising the importance of freedom of expression and privacy to support democracy, and calling for a global, democratic and just framework for Internet use and governance. The Internet Democracy Project joined other civil society organisations from around the world in expressing our strong support to Ms. Rousseff, through a letter, for the many excellent point she raised in her speech. The text of our letter can be found below. The full list of signatories can be found here.   More

With inputs from Richa Kaul Padte In recent months, the calls for a complete ban on pornography, as well as for the criminalisation of consumption of pornography, have fast been growing louder, and both Parliament and the Supreme Court are now studying such proposals.    More

Ever since the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) brought out rather starkly disagreements among governments about governments’ role in Internet governance, this issue has received considerable attention. What is discussed far less, however, is that, in this ongoing tug of war, civil society is paying a high price: notwithstanding the extensive lip service both governments and international organisations increasingly pay to the multistakeholder model, civil society’s ability to contribute to and shape the crucial debate and decisions on the role of governments in Internet governance and decisions in practice is consistently undermined in the core arenas in which this debate is being furthered. This negatively affects civil society’s ability to participate in Internet governance as a whole.   More