Uproar Over Government-Only Internet Governance Forum

Civil Society and industry stakeholder groups are up in arms against a decision by the bureau of the United Nations Committee on Science and Technology for Development to task only governments with the decision on improvements for the Internet Governance Forum. Having a multistakeholder nature was said to be the biggest achievement of the non-decision making IGF – and a model for other UN and political processes – because it allowed governments, industry representatives, non-commercial organisations and the academic and technical community to share knowledge and jointly look for best practices in the field of Internet governance. Civil society representatives, according to Wolfgang Kleinwaechter from the University of Aarhus (Denmark), are very concerned that a government-only approach might do away with the multistakeholder model.

The civil society “Internet Governance Caucus,” the Internet Society, and the International Chamber of Commerce jointly are preparing a letter to protest against the CSTD decision of 6 December. Some voices went as far as to call for a boycott of a government-only show or the set-up of alternative venues for an open internet governance dialogue. According to experts, an option to discuss the issue once more is be the UN General Assembly session on 17 December, where the next five-year mandate of the IGF will be decided. Non-governmental participants are also concerned about the fact that the IGF loses one of its big supporters, IGF Executive Secretary Markus Kummer, who is expected to step down on 31 January.

Letter available here.