Internet Governance And The Global South

A welcome addition to Palgrave's Global Media Policy and Business series, Internet Governance and the Global South documents the role of the global south in Internet policymaking and challenges the globalization theories that declared the death of the state in global decision-making. Abu Bhuiyan argues that the global Internet politics is primarily a conflict between the states - the United States of America and the states of the global south - because the former controls Internet policymaking. The states of the global south have been both oppositional and acquiescing to the sponsored policies of the United States on Internet issues such as digital divide, multilingualism, intellectual property rights and cyber security. They do not oppose the neoliberal underpinnings of the policies promoted by the United States, but ask for an international framework to govern the Internet so that they can work as equal partners in setting norms for the global Internet.

This book addresses the complex issue of global Internet governance by focusing on its implementation in Malaysia and Singapore. The authors draw insights, identify, revisit and flesh out the discourses circulating since the 1990s and pitch them against global internet governance concerns. Internet governance, thought managed domestically/nationally, is a global issue. It is at the heart of how the internet works yet remains hidden within the 'black box' of governance language. While several scholars have entered the fray in recent years, especially in the past decade, very few of them are aware that the Malaysian and Singaporean governments have in fact been at the forefront of Internet regulatory strategies from the early 1990s. The book identifies, revisits and gives flesh to some of the discourses circulating in Southeast Asia at the time and pitches it against current governance concerns. Readers of this book will understand how and why Malaysia and Singapore are important contributors to the issue of internet governance. This knowledge will inform a depth of understanding of why China is keenly seeking to stake its demands on internet governance and sovereignty, and likely American and global responses. Readers will also appreciate how and why the regulation of the Internet has been and will remain a site of contestation and control.

Informed by theories of international relations, this book assesses global political conflicts over cyberspace. It also analyzes the unique governance challenges that the Internet presents, both in terms of technical problems and control over content. The internet is a resource of unparalleled importance to all countries and societies, but the current decentralized system of Internet governance is being challenged by governments that seek to assert sovereign control over the technology. The political battles over governing the Internet-ones that are coming and conflicts that have already started-have far-reaching implications. This book analyzes the shifting nature of internet governance as it affects timely and significant issues including internet freedom, privacy, and security, as well as individual and corporate rights. Controlling Cyberspace covers a broad range of issues related to internet governance, presenting a technical description of how the internet works, an overview of the internet governance ecosystem from its earliest days to the present, an examination of the roles of the United Nations and other international and regional organizations in internet governance, and a discussion of internet governance in relation to specific national and international policies and debates. Readers will consider if internet access is a human right and if the right to freedom of expression applies equally to the exchange of information online. The book also addresses how the digital divide between those in developed countries and the approximately 5 billion people who do not have access to the internet affects the issue of internet governance, and it identifies the challenges involved in protecting online privacy in light of government and corporate control of information.

The volume explores the consequences of recent events in global Internet policy and possible ways forward following the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12). It offers expert views on transformations in governance, the future of multistakeholderism and the salience of cybersecurity. Based on the varied backgrounds of the contributors, the book provides an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on international relations, international law and communication studies. It addresses not only researchers interested in the evolution of new forms of transnational networked governance, but also practitioners who wish to get a scholarly reflection on current regulatory developments. It notably provides firsthand accounts on the role of the WCIT-12 in the future of Internet governance.

How institutions for Internet governance are emerging from the tension between the territorially bound nation-state and a transnational network society. When the prevailing system of governing divides the planet into mutually exclusive territorial monopolies of force, what institutions can govern the Internet, with its transnational scope, boundless scale, and distributed control? Given filtering/censorship by states and concerns over national cybersecurity, it is often assumed that the Internet will inevitably be subordinated to the traditional system of nation-states. In Networks and States, Milton Mueller counters this, showing how Internet governance poses novel and fascinating governance issues that give rise to a global politics and new transnational institutions. Drawing on theories of networked governance, Mueller provides a broad overview of Internet governance from the formation of ICANN to the clash at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the formation of the Internet Governance Forum, the global assault on peer-to-peer file sharing, and the rise of national-level Internet control and security concerns. Internet governance has become a source of conflict in international relations. Networks and States explores the important role that emerging transnational institutions could play in fostering global governance of communication-information policy.

The book addresses representation of the public interest in Internet standard developing organisations (SDOs). Much of the existing literature on Internet governance focuses on international organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The literature covering standard developing organisations has to date focused on organisational aspects. This book breaks new ground with investigation of standard development within SDO fora. Case studies centre on standards relating to privacy and security, mobile communications, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and copyright. The book lifts the lid on internet standard setting with detailed insight into a world which, although highly technical, very much affects the way in which citizens live and work on a daily basis. In doing this it adds significantly to the trajectory of research on Internet standards and SDOs that explore the relationship between politics and protocols. The analysis contributes to academic debates on democracy and the internet, global self-regulation and civil society, and international decision-making processes in unstructured environments. The book advances work on the Multiple Streams Framework (MS) by applying it to decision-making in non-state environments, namely SDOs which have long been dominated by private actors. The book is aimed at academic audiences in political science, computer science communications and science and technology studies as well as representatives from civil society, the civil service, government, engineers and experts working within SDO fora. It will also be accessible to students at the postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

The expansion of the Internet has been called the most revolutionary development in the history of human communications. It is ubiquitous and is changing politics, economics and social relations. Its borderless nature affects the roles of individuals, the magic of the marketplace and the problems of government regulation. As its development has increased apace, contradictions have arisen between existing regulatory regimes, private interests, government concerns, international norms and national interests. Unlike most areas where there are global institutions, and the role of governments is predominant, the Internet is a field where the private sector and civil society each have a role as important – or sometimes more important – than governments. Based on international regime theory, this book analyses how the multi-stakeholder institutions have grown along with the Internet itself. Starting with an examination of how communications were regulated under the Westphalian system, John Mathiason shows how governance of the Internet started as a technical issue but became increasingly political as the management of critical resources began to conflict with other international regimes.