Renowned internet developers warn against centralization of network governance

Contents

At the Future Summit in September, the member states of the United Nations want to draw up a new roadmap for internet and digital policy. In aletter to the UN Secretary-Generaltoday, almost 40 long-standing, well-known developers from the Internet Engineering Task Force and the W3C warn against a trend towards centralization in the development of rules for the Internet. They fear that political decisions could have a detrimental effect on the infrastructure level.

Last week, negotiators from Sweden and Zambia published a new version of the planned Global Digital Compact (GDC), the global community's digital policy roadmap for the next decade. The second draft recognizes the need for governments to work with tech developers in companies, social media platforms and civil society groups.

More state oversight for the networks?

However, the devil is in the detail and technology experts are concerned that the GDC, which was ultimately adopted by the UN member states, could result in multilateral - i.e. purely intergovernmental - forms of digital policy supervision replacing cooperation between the various stakeholders. In the most recently published draft, governments emphasized the coexistence of multilateral and multi-stakeholder supervisory structures for the internet.

The signatories of the open letter, which include several former IETF chairs and W3C working group chairs, warn against a shift in emphasis from self-governing to more governmental and centralized governance structures. On the one hand, the idea of relying more on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for Internet governance is still being floated by some countries. On the other hand, completely new supervisory bodies are also being discussed, particularly for the topic of AI.

Cooperation against negative phenomena in the networks

It is recognized that governments take their responsibility to protect their citizens seriously, the internet experts write. As dangers on the internet become more apparent, governments see it as their duty to intervene through regulation and legislation. Although technology can be used to influence usage, "it alone cannot solve abuse, misinformation, inequality or many other problems". At the same time, there are fears that excessive regulation could restrict or even destroy openness and interoperability on the internet.

"I think there is a latent concern that governments, in their understandable desire to curb abusive behavior, are choosing policy solutions that have a direct and detrimental impact on the infrastructure layer of the Internet," explains Vint Cerf, one of the main developers of the original TCP-IP standard and co-signer of the letter when asked.

Cerf believes that a shift towards stronger state supervision is almost inevitable. This is because the GDC ultimately calls directly on states to adopt rules in various areas. The list ranges from the protection of users and especially minors to more equality in network access and the mining of data gold, the promotion of open source and an AI that is hopefully committed to the common good.

For the signatories of the letter, however, it is important, says Cerf, that the processes set in motion do not inadvertently erode global connectivity and the free flow of information.

Implementation is crucial

Ultimately, the implementation of the follow-up processes of the GDC, which will be adopted by the states in September, is crucial, says Cerf. For example, will the new global AI committees be hand-picked by the Secretary-General as before? Will purely multilateral processes on the Internet in the UN be opened up by the states in order to include users and technicians on an equal footing? Will the Internet Governance Forum finally be better equipped as a global digital policy platform?

The idea of creating entirely new UN bodies for GDC implementation is hardly feasible, assures WZB researcher Jeanette Hofmann. She was also one of the discussion leaders at theNetMundial+10 conferencerecently organized by Brazil, which also adopted an appeal for more rather than fewer interest groups, especially in the UN. According to Hofmann, neither the US government nor the EU have much interest in new bodies in the area of Internet governance.

(dahe)