<html><head></head><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" lang="en-GB" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: initial;"> <div style="width: 100%; font-size: initial; font-family: Calibri, 'Slate Pro', sans-serif, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); text-align: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Congratulations Anita!</div><div style="width: 100%; font-size: initial; font-family: Calibri, 'Slate Pro', sans-serif, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); text-align: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">De</div> <div style="width: 100%; font-size: initial; font-family: Calibri, 'Slate Pro', sans-serif, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); text-align: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br style="display:initial"></div> <div style="font-size: initial; font-family: Calibri, 'Slate Pro', sans-serif, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 73, 125); text-align: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.</div> <table width="100%" style="background-color:white;border-spacing:0px;"> <tbody><tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: initial; text-align: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <div style="border-style: solid none none; border-top-color: rgb(181, 196, 223); border-top-width: 1pt; padding: 3pt 0in 0in; font-family: Tahoma, 'BB Alpha Sans', 'Slate Pro'; font-size: 10pt;"> <div><b>From: </b>anita</div><div><b>Sent: </b>Tuesday, 6 December 2016 21:24</div><div><b>To: </b>governance@lists.igcaucus.org</div><div><b>Reply To: </b>governance@lists.igcaucus.org</div><div><b>Subject: </b>[governance] my statement at the opening session</div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="border-style: solid none none; border-top-color: rgb(186, 188, 209); border-top-width: 1pt; font-size: initial; text-align: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><br><div id="_originalContent" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</p><p>Statement by Anita Gurumurthy, at the IGF Opening Session,
Guadalajara</p>
<p>6<sup>th</sup> Dec 2016</p>
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<p>Respected colleagues and dear friends,<br>
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<p>Most of us who come back to the IGF, year after year, share a
dream; a dream that the internet - as a cherished innovation,
can
make possible a society that is free and equal. </p>
<p>With ten IGFs behind us, we need to ask ourselves, how well we
have done. Let’s take access. Over 40% of the 7.5 billion people
on
this planet are connected. However, we are told that
connectivity
rates are slowing down. </p>
<p>But this may not be a cause for worry. The network will get to
the
last woman, anyway. Never mind if it is rudimentary and of poor
quality; never mind if it is zero rated. A global, immersive,
invisible, networked computing environment built through the
marvels
of the cloud, massive data centres and proliferation of smart
everythings, will soon be upon us. The world will be connected,
by
2025.</p>
<p>My submission, as we begin our deliberations on inclusive and
sustainable growth at this IGF is that since 2005, when the
Tunis
agenda gave us the mandate of the IGF, we have been caught in
the
trees and woods problem. As we have harped on freedoms online,
busying ourselves to bring access to all, a mission creep has
overtaken us. A totalising net of surveillance has annexed the
planet, rapidly enfolding society and sociality. </p>
<p>The unfreedoms of the internet are not just about exclusion,
but
the despotism of a tireless net that enslaves us as subjects of
a
datafied world. There was a time when those who could manipulate
media manipulated elections; now algorithms are taking over
electoral
processes and the media. </p>
<p>Welcome to post-truth on the post-human planet. </p>
<p>The primary problem before us is not a problem of trust as we
are
told in every other internet report, but that of greed. In
digital capitalism, it is cheaper to give access to people than
leave
them alone. And so, as we stand by watching, the Internet is
becoming
a rapacious instrument of capture. It is the basis of networked
individualism, the motor of a consumptive society, where the
race for
big data coopts us as willing slaves of limitless goodies. </p>
<p>From a predatory internet, the path downhill can only be a
society
that self-cannibalises. </p>
<p>The second problem is that we have forfeited the opportunity
that
the digital revolution brought us to build a technology of
memory
that can radically change the power structures of society. The
history of every civilization is about its technology of memory.
As
social memory and cognition are increasingly centralised through
the
data bases and algorithms of state and corporate surveillance,
we see
a crisis of extreme alienation and unprecedented inequality. </p>
<p>A world that is fully networked – as things stand – can
neither be sustainable nor inclusive. 2025 is unlikely to be
raceless, genderless, classless or casteless.</p>
<p>This brings us to the third problem - the digital phenomenon is
invariably cast as post-political; as an autonomous force that
is
best left alone, untarnished by human intent. But inclusion
presupposes the rule of law. As the Internet redefines
institutions
globally and locally, it dislocates the boundaries of existing
jurisprudence. To pass the test of equality and inclusion, the
network-data structures scaffolding all institutions need a new
philosophy and science of law and justice.</p>
<p><span lang="en-GB">The </span>current paralysis of global
internet
governance is unsustainable.</p>
<p>As the global network finds its way into reality, augmenting it
through embedded code and remote control, there is a huge loss
of
local autonomy. The Internet’s logic is inherently irreverential
of
territorial jurisdiction. </p>
<p><span lang="en-GB">So,</span><span lang="en-GB"> who should
develop the standards for these global public policy issues?
The
absence of a democratic international platform to address
public
interest in times of algorithmic tyranny reflects a monumental
crisis
of governance. A private platform floated by the top six
digital
corporations, named “</span><span lang="zxx"><a href="https://www.partnershiponai.org/">Partnership
on AI</a><a href="https://www.partnershiponai.org/"> – To
Benefit
People and Society</a></span><span lang="en-GB">” is all set
to
formulate best practices on AI technologies. Industry
standards do
indeed have a role to play. But an internet that can be
individually
empowering, collectively enriching and ecologically
restorative is
possible only through a democratic rule of law that can
guarantee the
mechanisms of accountability, in global governance. </span>
</p>
<p>It is time we move in this direction, of forging a global
digital
compact.</p>
<p>The dialogic space of IGF is indeed a unique venue for public
deliberation. But to complement the IGF, we need a robust
political
process to develop global norms and policies for the Internet,
as
required by the Tunis agenda. </p>
<p>The task for civil society is cut out. Unless social movements
can
come together to reimagine an alternative internet, one that
promotes
diverse universes, another internet will not be possible. </p>
<p>Our wisdom is getting colonised. It is time for a new politics
of
internet governance.</p>
<p>At the risk of sounding techno-deterministic, I would like to
say
to you all, if we can save the internet, we may perhaps be able
to
save the planet. </p>
<p>Now, let us look to our neighbour and begin a conversation; do
they know there is a question here? Do they understand the
now-or-never imperative?</p>
<p>Friends, before I say thank you, I would like to lend my voice
of
support to the <a href="http://www.enjambre.net/en/content/mexican-civil-society-organizations-igf-2016-denounces-human-rights-violations">statement</a>
issued by my Mexican civil society colleagues during the IGF,
about
their human rights concerns. The Internet, I believe must be
protected as a bastion of democracy. It cannot become an
instrument
that undermines human rights. </p>
<p></p>
<br>
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<p class="Text_20_body">Anita Gurumurthy</p>
<p class="Horizontal_20_Line"> </p>
<p class="P1"><span class="T2">Executive Director <br>
IT for Change<br>
</span><span class="T1">In special consultative status with the
United Nations ECOSOC</span><span class="T3"><br>
</span><a href="http://www.itforchange.net/" class="Internet_20_link"><span class="T1">www.ITforChange.net</span></a>
<span class="T1">Phone: 91-80-26654134</span> <span class="T4">|
</span><span class="T1">T: 00-91-80 2653 6890</span> </p>
<p class="P1"><br>
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