(Article published in the Global Times, April 28th 2014)

The revelations of mass surveillance being conducted by the National Security Agency shifted the balance in discussions over Internet governance. The US lost its moral high ground and its position as a leader has been challenged. Actors that would like to promote changes now have the political opportunity to push them forward.

One of the opportunities to discuss the way forward was the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance (NETmundial), convened by the government of Brazil on April 23-24.

The event was announced after the speech of the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, at UN General Assembly, in which she strongly criticized the US and its mass surveillance policies.

The fact that a developing country took the lead on these discussions is a symptom of this moment of change. Brazil has historically accumulated political capital and enjoys international respect in Internet governance, supported by its early involvement in global Internet processes, and by the existence of a national multistakeholder structure for Internet governance.

This is embodied in CGI.br, a council that displays equal participation of governmental and non-governmental actors from civil society, academia, technical community and the business sector.

Moreover, the country was able to develop partnerships with various actors from both the developed and developing world on issues related to the Internet.

Brazil fostered the debate about Internet governance, introduced a resolution on Internet privacy in partnership with Germany in the UN and engaged in conversations with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to hold NETmundial. There are few countries with such a diverse group of partners.

The agenda of NETmundial covered two main points. The first was the identification of universally acceptable principles related to the functioning of the Internet and related to Internet governance. The second topic was a roadmap for the evolution of institutional architecture. This discussion focused on the governance domain names and IP numbers and the process for the development of global public policy issues related to the Internet.

One of the key issues is the unilateral oversight of the US government over the root zone file on which the domain name system depends. Recently, the US announced that it would be willing to transfer the oversight, under some conditions, including that the new responsible group should be a multi-stakeholder community rather than an international body.

When it comes to public policy issues, there is a wide range of opinions. Some actors like Russia, India, some Arabian countries and part of civil society would like to create a body under the UN that would be responsible to develop policies for the Internet. Others, such as European countries, the US and the vast majority of civil society believe that the distributed model of Internet governance should be preserved, even if there is need for coordination between Internet governance institutions.

Some important achievements were made at the NETmundial, such as the recognition of the Internet as a global resource that should be managed according to the public interest.

In the roadmap section, great emphasis was put on increasing transparency, accountability, effectiveness and globalization of institutions. A distributed model was endorsed at the same time that it was recognized that the roles and responsibilities of actors are different and need to be clarified.

The conclusions of NETmundial will be as relevant as actors decide them to be. If the ideas contained in the document are good and useful, they will be taken forward to other forums and upcoming meetings, serving as tool to influence the World Summit on the Information Society review process.

This meeting in Brazil created a new window of opportunity for developing countries to build viable coalitions and influence the evolution of Internet governance.

Evandro Carvalho is a professor of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and Fluminense Federal University, in Rio de Janeiro. He is also senior scholar at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Marilia Maciel is a researcher and coordinator of the Center for Technology and Society of the FGV. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

Link to the article: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/857319.shtml#.U2W1tF6ztwz