Global governance is a collaborative process involving the capacities of transnational actors to solve a myriad of global challenges. This is especially relevant in the context of the Internet where governance arrangements involve a multiplicity of actors, including the private sector, multi-stakeholder initiatives, governments, non-governmental organizations, global public bodies, and individual internet users, among others. But as governance becomes more collaborative and power is shared among state and non-state actors, questions of accountability arise.
In the absence of an overarching political authority, no one set of actors can solve the myriad of global challenges or adequately manage the complex process of social, economic, cultural, and political integration.We need a combination of efforts and more accountability.
Take Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), for example.The company has a unique role in how information is accessed globally through the Internet, but who is it accountable to? Shareholders, obviously; but what about the individual Internet user whose search history the company stores? What about the Chinese citizen who is unable to access certain information because of the company’s collaboration with the Chinese government?Should Google also be accountable to them?While providing a service that has greatly enhanced citizens' access to information, the extent of Google’s reach into people’s daily lives raises serious issues of public accountability.
But it's not just Google that faces the challenge of accountability; all the actors involved in the process of Internet governance need to be accountable to the people they affect.The Internet has been very effective at dispersing power and providing the well connected individual with unique opportunities to exert influence.The anonymity that the Internet affords can also lead to the abuse of such power.
If the Internet is to help create a new civil space where citizens from across the globe can come together to discuss and debate issues, there needs to be greater accountability among individual users for their actions.The recent proposals for an online code of conduct are interesting in this regard.
Likewise, organizations such as ICANN that have core functions in the global structures of Internet governance are also faced with the accountability challenge.In order to remain legitimate, ICANN needs to have in place structures that enable it to balance the needs and interests of its different stakeholder groups.
All actors involved in the process of Internet governance, irrespective of their sector, need to be accountable and responsive to the people and communities they affect; unless they are, the solutions and strategies developed for the governance of the Internet will lack legitimacy and ultimately fail.
— Robert Lloyd, Global Accountability Project Manager for One World Trust
5. Control and licensing of users identities and addresses
6. Control of licensing hardware attached to the network
7. Control of investigative services
8. Dispersing costs and payments
The authority cannot be a company, organisation or affiliate, funded or influenced by a company, politically influenced by any country or group of countries or influenced by any religon or special interest group.
By only controlling the technical aspects and not playing with international politics, upsetting commercial interests or personal matters.
Providing a level playing field for all users is the main aim of the authority. Funding is derived from licensing and a percentage of traffic income. The authority is non-profit redirecting excess income to improving the network, especially in underfunded areas as directed by public comment.
In case you haven't guessed I have an agenda. To put forward new networking hardware, protocols, and governance. The result of 20 years of planning and design and probably a further 5 years of development and implementation.
Accountability is often a stabilizing concept that allows something or someone opportunity and guidance.
The ability to communicate through digital means is not the dependancy of a single factor. Sure the distribution of IPs, domain names, communications centers and all the components that make up "the internet" are each critical in nature, but the overall concept of interoperability would suffer a temporary setback from such disparate entities controlling the functionality of online activity.
The virtual crossing of international borders leaves on the World Court and UN to assume responsibility for the concept of accountability and without being an expert in these two entities, I wager a guess they are woefully unprepared to undertake such a role.
Accountability is best left to the providers of content, in my opinion, and that places corporations such as Google in a very precarious position. We are in a global community and just as phone lines cross borders, with each nation or state placing their own tolls and reglations on usage, such will be my anticipated direction of internet content, availability, and access.
"Internet governance needs greater accountability", and a current and accurate declaration of the want, will, and hopes of all people, worldwide. Given the events of human history, it seems at this juncture in evolution that greater oneness is increasingly needed to help awaken the world to higher forms of collective wisdom, happiness and joy.
While a current and accurate declaration of the want, will, and hopes of all people, worldwide, would be difficult to achieve and maintain, honest progressive and increasingly collective work in this direction has tremendous potential to enable unimaginable intrinsic and pervasive value on route to the year 2020, and the centuries beyond.
Thank you for opening the discussion here, it is something that has been on my mind lately, enough to search around, find ISOC, the Internet Society, "founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy around the world" and join.
I would be interested in comments here on whether ISOC stands a chance of achieving its stated goals, and how it fits into the more global picture, and what "power" if any, it wields. "Leadership" requires influence, at the very least.
One thing that has struck me in thinking about all this is that the Internet, though self-organized and very organic in nature, lacks a "constitution" if you will, and that this may prove to be its undoing!
Not being an American I can say this without bragging: that those that wrote the US constitution did quite a remarkable job of laying the groundwork for subsequent American success by creating the rules by which more rules would be created. (Nomic provides an interesting example of an exploration of constitutional rule-making, for the more academically inclined, or those with more leisure-time!) I have experienced the constitutional crisis here in Canada, and solving it after-the-fact, I assure you, is neither easy nor leads to clarity and brevity. Nor accountability, to me, anyway.
In the absence of "a constitution for the Internet" that defines who the Internet is trying to serve ("we, the people??") who plays, who decides who plays, who makes the rules, who decides who makes the rules, and which rules are "immutable" ("truths that are self-evident?") and which "mutable", I fear that various vested interests will indeed dominate discussion. Debate on net-neutrality I think bears this out.
I believe it is *possible* that "we, the people" can be the group to whom Internet Governance is in the end accountable, but it will take some work to get regular everyday people to understand the relevance and importance to their lives, and be willing to cast their votes in regular democratic elections based on the principle.
The analogies to regulation of markets and trade should be obvious to those with an understanding of economics. But there are many who still do not believe in open competition and free markets, (yes, still, and even in our own democratic capitalist nations!) and who may clamour for net neutrality and elimination of internet censorship from one side of their mouth, while promoting state intervention in the economy from the other.
Until people see that it is just one principle, applied in different domains (pardon the pun) and are willing to vote for freedom, I fear the status quo of big government and big business moving in to guide the Internet towards their own ends will prevail.
Accountability yes. But to who or what is the big question? If we all are held accountable by overarching political authority over our internet usage, who would that political authority be accountable to?
Accountability on the net or real life is not a one way street, it is more of a multiple way street. Google though accountable to its shareholders, it is also accountable to the general global google users, on how it uses the infomation it stores. An abuse of these information could and would lead to a masive revolt from the public and this in effect could bring google to its knees.
We are all accountable to one another, be it in the physical world or in the virtual world of the internet, the concept of anonymity on the internet, is no longer true in most part. Those who use the internet in an abusive way, thinking that they are safe behind the protective curtain of anonymity, are in for a rude awakening sooner or later.
I would suggest education as the most effective means of dealing with this accountability questions...
I think internet governace is a thorny issue at the moment and there seems to be widespread indifference and hypocrisy by the major stakeholders in addressing pertinent issues facing the internet. Take for instance the last Internet Goverenace Forum(IGF) held in Brazil last year. Even before the meeting, China has vetoed that certain issues should not be discussed and their wish was granted."
Unfortunately not everything about IGF 2007 was a success. One important
area where IGF 2006 was clearly superior to IGF 2007 was with respect to the
discussion of controversial topics, such as online censorship or other human
rights.
Anyone at IGF 2006 will remember that
countries like China and Iran, and companies like Cisco Systems and Yahoo! were
taken to task by the Internet community for their role in contributing to
Internet censorship. Unfortunately this year, critical discussion of human
rights concerns was discouraged, and main session organizers walked on
egg-shells to avoid offending China or businesses who assist in the repression
of Internet freedom and democracy. IGF participants have repeatedly been warned
that if they raise such critical concerns, repressive governments and companies
will pull-out of participation in the forum – and we can’t have that!"
So where do the ordinary users whojut needs access and privacy stand in all these
hypocricy by the same stakeholders. My fear is that all these forums are just talk shows that are always influnce by represive govermnets and corporations and can never amount to anything significant that will help deprived users in places like China get free access to the internet. I don't know how much of a difference your organization will make in all of this but as users i believe we are always doom to the policies of these mighty internet gurus who are acting both as players and arbittrators at the same time.
But how? With anonymity protecting anyone who adds content and websites avoiding the responsibility of defending content, where does accountability come in?
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