Brazil’s ideas for globally inclusive Internet governance

The Financial Times - 22/04/2014 - [ gif ]
Autor: Virgílio Almeida
Assunto: Governança da Internet

Virgilio A. F. Almeida, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Brazil

With three billion users worldwide, the Internet is today considered an essential tool in the life of almost every citizen and a key component of economies and governments around the world. The impact it has made in just two and a half decades on standards of living, work, education, entertainment, political participation and, above all, the way we interact with each other, is so profound, so fast, and so complete, that it has no parallel in the history of global civilization.

But there is a darker side to the Internet, including attacks on freedom of expression and human rights, invasions of privacy, espionage, transnational legal disputes, and hidden concentrations of wealth. For that reason, the next era of global Internet governance –currently being discussed by experts and activists from London to Singapore, Brussels, Washington and Brazil– has never been more important. The time is right to propose changes in favor of a more global and inclusive model.

Many have asked “Why change what is not broken?” The answer comes down to trust. Trust between users and providers, regulators and actors, partners and participants in this global system. Trust has recently been significantly tested – if not broken – amid revelations of large-scale national and international surveillance cases, provider/regulator disputes on issues like net neutrality and competition, and rising consumer concerns over data privacy.

In order for the system to work equitably, there must be trust in the system of governance. This system that has been disproportionately administered up until this stage, but will change soon with the recent decision by the United States to hand over its supervisory role of the domain-name system in September 2015 to an international group.

The next two years will therefore be crucial to redrawing the map of global Internet governance. Now is the time to come together to develop the principles and mechanisms that will guide the Internet of the future, and Brazil is committed to setting the pace of this discussion, ensuring that it is inclusive, and leading through action.

Brazil’s proposed law on net neutrality, right to privacy

In September 2013, President Dilma Rousseff proposed the establishment of new rules for governance and the use of the Internet to the General Assembly of the United Nations, inviting a global discussion. This week we are making progress on a domestic front with the Marco Civil da Internet – a landmark bill expected to be signed into law very soon that sets provisions around net neutrality, right to privacy and freedom of expression online.

With over 100m citizens online and a domestic Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) that has successfully administered an open and transparent Internet governance model within Brazil for the past 20 years with the effective participation of civil society, companies, academic community and the government, we have useful experience and technologically advanced models that can be instructive to this discussion. But we recognize that the path forward must be a shared one.

For that reason, we issue this invitation to the global stakeholder community: On April 23 and 24, Brazil will host a multi stakeholder conference called NETmundial to begin developing a road map for the future of Internet governance. The meeting is organized by a partnership between CGI.br and/1Net – a global platform for anyone interested in contributing to the improvement of Internet governance. More than 80 countries have already confirmed their attendance to the event to be held in São Paulo, and almost 200 proposals from across sectors have been submitted. The event will be broadcast live, and many more will participate remotely.

These two days in Brazil will be the beginning of an important process to revise the current principles of global Internet governance, a process that is vital to the strengthening and long-term success of the Internet and its use for the social and economic development of all nations. Please join and make your voices heard. Our future is online, together.

* VirgilioA. F. Almeida is the Secretary for Information Technology Policies of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, coordinator of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee and Chairman of NETmundial.