[governance] JNC statement "Governing the global Internet – is the status quo the only option?"

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

Jnc is old style propaganda so my money is on disingenuous rather than naive

And yes, I have noted much the same irony dressed up in seemingly 
progressive jargon



On 29 October 2014 8:48:15 am David Cake <dave at difference.com.au> wrote:

> Indeed.
>
> The JNC seem very upset that the US has a fair bit of soft power within the 
> Internet governance world, largely as a result of its history of having 
> invented the Internet, having had a historically very successful ICT 
> industry, etc.
>
> Now, I'm all for criticising the USG for its hypocritical stances on IG 
> related matters (promoting MSism with one hand, policy laundering the 
> demands of the IP lobby in the TTPA etc with the other). And I'm all for 
> removing the historical special role of the USG in the IANA contract etc. 
> But soft power isn't just about the government, but about cultural and 
> political values. The US government may be hypocritical and on occasion 
> somewhat corrupted, but besides capitalism, the cultural and political 
> values of the US include democracy, freedom of speech, etc. I'm not 
> claiming they are consistently manifested, but... it does seem odd that a 
> group that so consistently talks about democracy in its rhetoric, is so 
> keen to decrease the soft power of a democratic nation, in favour of the 
> ITU, a forum in which (as it gives equal status to states regardless of 
> their form of government) nations that are either explicitly undemocratic 
> (KSA, China) or weaker (to the point of lip service only) in their 
> commitment to democracy (Russia) are relatively far stronger.
>
> It isn't that I object to the democratic rhetoric of the JNC per se - it is 
> just that somehow, opposition to capitalism always seems to be a more 
> important value to them in practice, and empowering nations that are 
> hostile to democracy always seems a price the JNC are willing (even keen) 
> to pay in order to oppose US corporations. Of course the JNC are welcome to 
> espouse any ideological position they wish - but the constant highlighting 
> of democracy in JNC rhetoric is either naive or disingenuous when the only 
> practical positions the JNC ever takes are to revert to forms of governance 
> that give more influence to undemocratic states.
>
> Cheers
>
> David
>
> On 28 Oct 2014, at 11:36 pm, Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org> wrote:
>
> > I stopped reading once the straw man came out:
> > "…decision making by self-selected elites, otherwise known by the name 
> “multistakeholder governance”. Centrally, this position advocates an 'equal 
> footing' multistakeholder model for global governance of the Internet, 
> whereby global corporations are given the same level of power as 
> governments in deciding public policy issues."
> >
> > --
> > Jeremy Malcolm
> > Senior Global Policy Analyst
> > Electronic Frontier Foundation
> > https://eff.org
> > jmalcolm at eff.org
> >
> > Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161
> >
> > :: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::
> >
> > On Oct 28, 2014, at 3:34 AM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> >
> >> Dear all
> >>
> >> The new JNC statement "Governing the global Internet – is the status
> >> quo the only option?" is available at
> >>
> >> http://justnetcoalition.org/sites/default/files/ITU_PP_2014_Stmt2.pdf
> >>
> >> Greetings,
> >> Norbert
> >> co-convenor, Just Net Coalition
> >>
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