Internet Democracy Project

The United Nations General Assembly invited member states, observer states and all relevant stakeholders to provide inputs on the desired elements and content of a ​“non-paper” that will be released at the end of August 2015 and eventually developed into the final outcome document to be adopted in December 2015. This report by Dr Anja Kovacs was the Internet Democracy Project’s official submission to their review of the implementation of WSIS outcomes on development, human rights, funding questions and ICT’s.   More

Between 4 and 8 May, the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) discussed, in Geneva, the overall review of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The WSIS outcome documents are considered a cornerstone of international norms and discourse on internet policy and governance. As civil society organisations committed to the goal of a ​‘people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, the Internet Democracy Project, the Association for Progressive Communications and the International Federation of Library Associations released the following statement at the meeting to highlight this central WSIS goal (the statement can also be found on the CSTD website.   More

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) invited comments on their consultation paper No. 2/2015 on regulatory framework for Over-The-Top (OTT) services. The Internet Democracy Project submitted comments to TRAI, outlining the importance of an unadulterated understanding of network neutrality as a necessary precondition for an open and free Internet.    More

The Internet Democracy Project joined forces with partner civil society organisations from around the world, to comment on the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) Secretariat’s draft report on the ​‘Ten-year Review of Progress Made in the Implementation of the Outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society’. The report is expected to be an important input into the overall review of the World Summit on the Information Society outcomes that will be conducted by the UN General Assembly next year. A shorter version of the statement was read out by Matthew Shears from the Center for Democracy and Technology during the recently concluded CSTD 2014 – 2015 Intersessional Panel in Geneva, which discussed the draft report. The full text of our statement, which has been shared with the CSTD Secretariat, can be found below.   More

A Consultation Paper on Media Law was floated by the Law Commission of India in May 2014 to elicit views from all stakeholders, to be submitted to the Commission by mid-August 2014. The Consultation Paper covered a wide range of areas: from opinion polls to methods of media regulation, from media and individual privacy to cross media ownership. The Internet Democracy Project made the submission below to the Law Commission in response to this call, focusing on one of the central areas of the Consultation Paper to touch on freedom of expression on the Internet in India: social media and section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The questions we answer below are the questions that have been raised by the Law Commission in the Consultation Paper.    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

On 31 August, the Internet Democracy Project submitted its responses to the questionnaire that was made available by the Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (WGEC) of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) last July. The questionnaire seeks to get input on the broad questions that constitutes the WGEC’s mandate: what is enhanced cooperation as per the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, and how should it be taken forward? The Internet Democracy Project argued that not a centralised, but a distributed model of Internet governance should constitute the road ahead. Our complete responses can be found below.   More

From 3 to 14 December 2012, the governments of the world will meet in Dubai, at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), to review the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs). Why should this be of concern to Internet activists? This briefing paper, authored by Rishab Bailey, answers the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) on why the ITU and the ITRs matter to the future of the Internet, and what the significance of current developments at the ITU could be for the Internet in a developing country like India.    More