As OECD Gathers, Call For New Internet Social Compact – With Some Open Questions

On the eve of the third internet-related Ministerial Meeting of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) starting on 22 June in Cancun, Mexico, the Global Commission on Internet Governance (GCIG) published a think report on “One Internet.” Calling for a new “social compact” for the internet, the 140-page report that was fed by 50 research studies has a number of well-known recommendations, some surprisingly technical and some interesting ones.

The GCIG report is here. Information on the OECD Ministerial is here.

Information Society (ISOC) background on Ministerial is available here.

Insurance companies for example are asked in the report presented in Cancun today to “rise to the challenge of ensuring that best practices for data protection and security are appropriately rewarded.” Governments are requested “to ensure their taxation policies do not bias the market for internet services or related equipment.”

At the same time, the 29 “Commissioners” chaired by Swedish Politician Carl Bildt and supported by as many as 45 experts also acknowledged that for some issues they have no answers, stating: “The debate about algorithmic transparency, like the debates around intellectual property protection, are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, given that strong views are held on both sides.”

Seven of the complete list of 66 recommendations were chosen by the GCIG partners, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and Chatham House, to be presented in the official press release.

On top was the call to governments to “not require third parties to weaken or compromise encryption standards through hidden ‘backdoors’ into technology.” It also said not to continue to make companies “the enforcement arm of governments” on the internet, but instead allow for “transparency reports that reveal the amount of content being restricted or blocked in response to requests by governments.”

Surveillance by states and private actors is the topic of a pretty big number of the recommendations – and it is bolstered with a mention of the Snowden-effect. Some 667 million people worldwide, according to a CIGI survey, changed their online behaviour after the former NSA analyst exposed the surveillance practices of western intelligence services.

“The Commission envisions a world in which the Internet reaches its full economic and social potential, where fundamental human rights such as privacy and freedom of expression are protected online,” the report states. It calls for cross-border redress for privacy violations and privacy regimes in those countries where they do not exist.

Marietje Schaake, member of the European Parliament and one of the 29 GCIG commissioners, put the recommendation regarding cyber peace and cyber security on top of her personal recommendation list.

“Modern economies are increasingly dependent on internet-enabled infrastructure,” she said. “As such, the capacity to use the internet to inflict damage by computer network attacks or computer network exploitation is now well established. The difficulty of attributing such attacks makes them an increasingly tempting arena for a number of states. This does not mean that a full-blown cyberwar is going to take place in the near future, but to avoid such a worst-case scenario governments should start to negotiate a list of targets that are off limits to cyber-attacks.”

Another issues the report attaches a lot of attention to is cybersecurity. For the Internet of Things, the report warns, fixing security problems later was no option.

Kathy Brown, CEO of the Internet Society, which also partnered with the GCIG on the report, said while she saw the report and efforts during the OECD internet ministerial as “solidifying the gains that were made on consensus about the globally open connected network,” security is the issue that needs to be addressed in a more collaborative way.

Asked if the debate about internet governance issues has not been fragmented over too many fora, Brown welcomed that there was a “deepening of the idea, that with complex issues of internet governance the need to have all legitimate parties at the table,” yet security still was not addressed in that way enough.

OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria, during the presentation today, underlined the report’s “call on governments, corporations, civil society, the technical community and individuals to create a new social compact for the digital age. A social compact that may bring about a completely new mode of interaction, of exchange of ideas, of negotiation that could also enhance policymaking processes in all areas, with the idea of making them increasingly open, transparent and, in the end, democratic.”

The OECD ministerial will decide on a declaration by the end of the week.