[governance] ITU Broadband Commission

[Norbert Bollow]

John Curran <jcurran at istaff.org> wrote:
> On Apr 3, 2012, at 5:20 AM, parminder wrote:
> > Many people take IG's multistakeholderism, as it is practised, to
> > be but a trojan horse for mega corporates to enter and dominate
> > policy spaces, and their perception may not be entirely
> > misplaced. Civil society needs  to do more to dispel this
> > impression, but sadly it doesnt...
> 
> Parminder, Jean-Louis -
> 
> I know this may be controversial, but rather than focusing the
> titles of those leading this effort, wouldn't it be more practical
> to comment on the actual work, and how it does or doesn't meet the
> needs of civil society?

Constant vigilance is required to avoid the creation and strengthening
of structures of power that will, if given the chance, certainly lead
to diminishing the influence of public interest advocacy.

Sure, the publicly stated objectives (making "broadband" Internet
access more broadly available) are ones that everyone agrees with.
But it's also a selection of objectives which can be expected to have
a net positive effect of the profits of these companies.

The risk is that public interest concerns related to net neutraliy,
non-interference with personal communication, and other human rights
topics that do not tend to have a net positive effect of the profits
of these companies will likely not get an appropriately high level of
attention if civil society stands back and lets these corporations
work out what they think is a reasonable strategy, without demanding
seats at the table.

Greetings,
Norbert

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