The struggle for communication rights: Global civil society and Internet govenance

Unrestricted With over two billion users worldwide, the Internet is arguably the most important communication infrastructure of the information age. Its near ubiquitous spread has raised questions about who controls and how to govern the Internet. This study analyzes the historical evolution of Internet governance institutions and discusses three phases of governance approaches to the Internet. During the first phase, governance of the Internet was self-regulatory and involved a community of users that made decisions through rough consensus. During the second phase the technical issue of domain name and addressing began debates over “Internet governance.” Larger issues of Internet governance emerged during the third phase that was marked by the World Summit on the Information Society, the existence of which illustrates the shift towards accepting the need for a global, more formal framework of governance. A main theme is the conflicting relationship between the global Internet and the traditional centralized system of authority of the territorially bound nation state.; In the age of global governance, global political processes are no longer exclusively the domain of governments. Civil society, while not as powerful as state power, has become a more active player in international politics. This dissertation documents how civil society organizations engage in global governance and analyzes the influence of civil society organizations on international negotiations of Internet governance.; The research involves a case study of Internet governance debates, with a focus on the role played by civil society organizations during the World Summit on Information Society and Internet Governance Forums from 2001 – 2009. The exploratory research involved multiple methods, including interviews, participant observation, organizational ecology, and an analysis of primary documents.; There are three main ways in which civil society organizations influenced the international Internet governance debates. First, they were involved with the democratization of Internet governance processes. Evidence for this was seen in the evolution of procedural rules regarding non-state actors. There was a qualitatively different level of civil society participation during the WSIS, representing a move to a multi-stakeholder model.; The second main influence of civil society organizations was their impact on the concept of Internet governance. Civil society reframed the understanding of Internet governance from a focus on technical and infrastructural issues to a humanistic perspective based on human rights and civil liberties. Civil society organizations were the main drivers of the shift in focus and the widening of policy parameters. The international negotiations resulted in a fundamental reassessment of the scope and nature of Internet governance.; The third main influence of civil society organizations involved how they impacted substantive issues during the negotiations, notably human rights. This finding was supported by analysis of civil society inputs reflected in the UN Summits’ final texts. The international negotiations led to a formal recognition about the need to base an Internet governance arrangement on the human rights framework. The study suggests that civil society will increasingly win seats at the negotiation table, and this could impact the practices and processes of international diplomacy on communication and information policy issues, as well as broader international issues, in the future.