[governance] Cerf: Internet Freedom under Attack

Wed May 23 17:20:34 EDT 2012

Though Vint's concern is not an Attack but rather the notion that what
the ITU intends to do. Right now its all more or less rhetoric and I
can assure you one thing, what was said during the EC discussions in
Geneva can actually be the ground for certain amount of consideration
at the WCIT because the ITU chief was also present.

ITU being multistakeholder will be a distant dream. The sustainability
ecosystem of that organization cannot work and thats what I see with a
lot of people going OMG with ITU and its attacks. The IGF goes broke
every now and then, can a harmonized multilateral vehicle function on
a ready to go broke model? I am not defending ITU but bringing eyes
and ears to the other side of the debate, the Internet has always been
under attack, we are only witnessing evolutions of governance.

ICANN, lives on industry and people's money, basically has a financial
sustainability model. IGF got together nearly half a million euros
from voluntary contributions, ICANN just got together $350million
dollars with more rolling under just the new gtld program and spends
an approximately 2-4 million dollars on its public and open to all
with only a few closed Public Meetings that rotate three times across
the globe and then ITU that has multiple activities going on with its
multisectoral partners (which it usually refers to as
multistakeholders in its own view). The crisis here is what everyone
asks in the development sector, how will you sustain yourself and that
brings us back to Parminder's discussions from earlier years.

My inclination whether IGF should stay there or should there be
something like a CIRP or oversight body changes with every event that
happens right in front of me in Pakistan and I am a key member of the
stakeholdership that is under constant threat and poses us as
dissidents that can be noticed at any moment in time, IGF, ITU and
ICANN don't matter if we can't get a grip on things even after a
decade of these discussions and debates. Thats whats happening in the
US congress and thats what Vint Cerf seems to be worried about and
thats what many geniuses consider today is the challenge, who gains or
sustains control and who has both the resources and support to do so.

I've seen other takeholders dropping stuff on their own feet, not just
the CS in the IGF circle. Apart from ICANN there is no solution
because no one has their doors open for everyone. ITU's definition of
multistakeholderism stands at multisectoralism and the neo-liberalist
views of a free and open internet and free market evolution ain't
gonna work because somebody can just get up and pull the plug on
twitter for a day and just as well plug it back in and say ah, what?

Let's start getting real here and I like what you said Karl,
anti-ITU-ism isn't going to work, it never will. The govts are going
to meet in Dubai in December. Its a closed door meeting and its gonna
be G8 style and trust me, if people plan to stage a to protest in
Dubai, they have a different way of treating things. The dubai gov can
have anyone from Pakistan extradited in seconds and i don't believe
there are that many strong groups to back and actually be meaningful
in a crisis.

The discussion has to evolve beyond pseudo-intellectualism and OMG
Activism into a more collaborative, combined, well-organized and REAL
intervention. People have to go talk to ITU in their office in Geneva.
People have to go and talk to the people that are going to be at
Dubai. Governments in Europe have to sit down at the EURODIG and
discuss this out and let the world know their stance on what they are
doing at WCIT. The Arab IGF is on the way, what does it intend to do,
what are the stances from other regional IGFs, what is the followup
and what is the feedback, is IGC organized enough to take this on?

I rest this discussion :o)

Best

Fouad

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 1:55 AM, Karl Auerbach <karl at cavebear.com> wrote:
> On 05/23/2012 11:49 AM, "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang" wrote:
>
>>
>> http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/228561-father-of-the-internet-warns-web-freedom-is-under-attack
>
>
> Not to put too fine a point on it, but ICANN, from the day of its inception
> has been kow towing to the trademark, industrial, and governmental interests
> that are driving "law enforcement" into more and more corners of our lives
> and started to replace presumption of innocence with presumption of guilt in
> both civil and criminal contexts.
>
> Since its birth 15 years ago threats to privacy, to democratic principles,
> to freedom of innovation, to due process, and to freedom of expression have
> been quite growing, quite visibly - and without shame - within ICANN.
>
> And governments, particularly the US government, rejoiced at the notion that
> they could have a private arm to pursue goals that those government bodies
> could not, due to Constitutional limitations, do themselves.
>
> The most interesting aspect of the concern expressed in the article is its
> lateness - the same concern could have been expressed with equal import at
> any time during the last 15 years.
>
> I, personally, see the article as part of an anti-ITU campaign that has
> failed to ask an important threshold question - Are the ITU and ICANN really
> all that different?
>
> I'd suggest that the difference is more in weights - that on the balance of
> influences the ITU weighs government expressions higher than those of
> industrial interests, and in ICANN the scales are reversed - but in neither
> is there much concern for public values, due process, or public voices.
>
> From where I sit I see merely a turf war between the US/ICANN and the
> ITU/rest-of-the-world; I don't see any white knights riding up to vindicate
> personal rights.
>
>        --karl--
>
>
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-- 
Regards.
--------------------------
Fouad Bajwa
ICT4D and Internet Governance Advisor
My Blog: Internet's Governance: http://internetsgovernance.blogspot.com/
Follow my Tweets: http://twitter.com/fouadbajwa
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