Engagement With 'Diverse Voices' Can Stop Internet Fragmentation, State's Sepulveda Says
The U.S. and other strong supporters of multistakeholder Internet governance must engage with a “diverse set of voices” on governance issues to prevent Internet fragmentation, said State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary-Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Daniel Sepulveda during an Internet Society event Tuesday. Fragmentation “would constitute a grave threat” to the Internet's potential to encourage innovation and economic development globally, Sepulveda said. The Internet's track record in fostering economic and social development is a “development that's worth preserving,” he said. Recent developments at the U.N.'s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum in Geneva and other Internet governance forums indicate global support for multistakeholderism is strengthening, Internet governance stakeholders said in interviews.
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Multistakeholderism supporters “have been successful” during the U.N.'s December high-level meeting on its 10-year review of the WSIS outcomes (WSIS+10) and other recent diplomatic forums in pushing back against efforts by governments favoring the multilateral, government-dominated Internet governance model, Sepulveda said. The most recent WSIS forum, which Sepulveda chaired, was the first WSIS-related summit since the WSIS+10 high-level meeting. The U.S. remains concerned about governments' national-level efforts to adopt data localization laws and duty of care requirements, Sepulveda said.
The WSIS forum, unlike the U.N.'s WSIS+10 high-level meeting, didn't produce any outcome documents or negotiated statements, Internet Society Senior Director-Global Internet Policy Constance Bommelaer said in an interview. But it was still a “valuable moment” to underscore the continued progress in strengthening the multistakeholder Internet governance model, she said. The U.N.'s outcome documents from the WSIS+10 meeting endorsed the multistakeholder model and reaffirmed the U.N.'s commitment to the spread of information and communications technologies (ICT) as a human right. The outcome document also extended the Internet Governance Forum's mandate for another 10 years (see 1512180049).
The WSIS forum included a “strong emphasis” on ICT development and cited a need for continued “enhanced” cooperation on Internet governance issues, Bommelaer told us. ICT development was also a main focus of a recent meeting of the G-7's ICT ministers in which they agreed via the G-7's "Charter for a Digitally Connected World" to a new global approach to ICT policy that focuses on promoting and protecting free cross-border data flows online (see 1605030068). The G-7 ministers' commitment to promoting the free cross-border flow of data and opposition to data localization laws is “very encouraging,” Bommelaer said.
Though the WSIS forum didn't produce any “huge bumps in the road,” that's a positive sign for multistakeholderism because “it's a sign of international consensus,” said Internet governance scholar and consultant John Laprise in an interview. That international consensus is shown in a variety of forums, including the G-7's work and ICANN's work on the ongoing Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, he said. “Everyone is holding their breath” while the IANA transition process progresses because a successful transition will open the door to future Internet governance consensus work, Laprise said. That progress shows fears about Internet fragmentation “are overblown,” he said. “There's a continuing conversation on fragmentation but I'm fairly skeptical of it.”
“Vigilance is necessary” to prevent Internet fragmentation, but the threat is government regulations that would cut off access to data rather than a technical fragmentation of the Internet, Sepulveda said. American University School of Communication Associate Dean Laura DeNardis said during the Internet Society event that efforts to enact data localization laws remain a threat to the Internet but “I'm very optimistic” the multistakeholder model will protect the global Internet. Internet Society President Kathryn Brown called the IANA transition a “step in the right direction” toward decreasing the likelihood of fragmentation because it will ensure the Domain Name System's assets will remain under global stewardship.