[governance] my statement at the opening session
anita
anita at itforchange.net
Tue Dec 6 20:23:10 EST 2016
Statement by Anita Gurumurthy, at the IGF Opening Session, Guadalajara
6^th Dec 2016
Respected colleagues and dear friends,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Welcome to post-truth on the post-human planet.
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.
From a predatory internet, the path downhill can only be a society that
self-cannibalises.
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.
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.
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.
The current paralysis of global internet governance is unsustainable.
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.
So,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 “Partnership on AI
<https://www.partnershiponai.org/>– To Benefit People and Society
<https://www.partnershiponai.org/>” 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.
It is time we move in this direction, of forging a global digital compact.
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.
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.
Our wisdom is getting colonised. It is time for a new politics of
internet governance.
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.
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?
Friends, before I say thank you, I would like to lend my voice of
support to the statement
<http://www.enjambre.net/en/content/mexican-civil-society-organizations-igf-2016-denounces-human-rights-violations>
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.
--
- no title specified
Anita Gurumurthy
Executive Director
IT for Change
In special consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC
www.ITforChange.net <http://www.itforchange.net/> Phone: 91-80-26654134
| T: 00-91-80 2653 6890
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20161207/f6d796b9/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
For all other list information and functions, see:
http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
http://www.igcaucus.org/
Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
More information about the Governance
mailing list