[IRPCoalition] [bestbits] Fwd: Is the Internet Really Free of US Control?
Marianne Franklin
m.i.franklin at gold.ac.uk
Mon Oct 17 17:54:05 EEST 2016
Dear Parminder
Thanks for the thumbs-up regarding the HRI series on openDemocracy
<https://opendemocracy.net/hri>. And, indeed, debate and action are not
always the same thing. But action and attitudes can be influenced by
debates that take internal, expert-driven issues out into the wider
world. And as the world is increasingly online, activists (and
academics) and policymakers (and designers) cannot any more expect
public fora to be ready and waiting for topics that are as arcane as
they are deeply political, and politicized.
To that end, talk is not cheap, and actions do speak as loudly as words.
Seeing this issue discussed in a public forum, and not surprisingly I am
advocating this particular one given the high-quality contributions from
people who are on these lists, and who are re also active in a range of
other networks (e.g. scholarly, policy-based, activist), is becoming
increasingly needed. Politicians are making decisions based on a lack of
access to the nuances of these issues, to put it lightly.
Might I also have that our students in universities are becoming
increasingly engaged in the implications of a range of internet
governance decisions and interventions by all stakeholders.... they are
seldom addressed in these circles even as they constitute the leaders of
tomorrow.
Thanks to everyone on this series for committing to bringing these
debates out into the open!
best
MF
On 17/10/2016 15:05, parminder wrote:
>
>
>
> On Monday 17 October 2016 07:16 PM, Marianne Franklin wrote:
>>
>> Dear Parminder, Others (am also copying in the IRPC list).
>>
>> There is clearly still lots to debate,
>>
>
> Yes Marianne, but the political moment of reckoning does not wait for
> all debates to conclude - debates that has now been happening for more
> than 10 years. The jurisdiction question is being considered formally
> "right now" in the transition process, as it is called, In a few
> months it will be formally declared that the global multi stakeholder
> community - which is supposed to includes me and you, and all the
> debators -- have concluded by full or rough consensus that the current
> jurisdictional status remains the best bet for ICANN. The 'decision'
> will be touted in our name. IGC 11 years ago took a political position
> in the middle of debates - political activism requires that. 11 years
> hence the debates cannot be less mature then they were before - I am
> just wondering, what happened meanwhile... Well, isnt that too an
> important question by itself to ask, and explore, for activists and
> academics alike. Just clarifying what was the accent of my posting.
> Meanwhile, yes, more debates and articles and comments continue to
> remain welcome, and shd keep coming. But maybe, civil society's job
> includes some political role too!
>
> Meanwhile I do recommend to everyone to read this excellent series of
> IG related articles published in OpenDemocracy and coordinated by
> Marianne. https://www.opendemocracy.net/hri . Debates, academic
> exercises, and political action must all go together.
>
> best regards
>
> parminder
>>
>> on the macro level of past and future ownership and control of the
>> strategically important aspects of the internet's infrastructure
>> (content being another matter altogether). To date the debates about
>> ICANN, positions for/against and all other shades, have occurred on
>> lists with well informed, and committed participants.
>>
>> To date there is little out there for an informed, wider public. This
>> is why comments on the Prakash piece
>> <https://www.opendemocracy.net/digitaLiberties/pranesh-prakash/jurisdiction-taboo-topic-at-icann>,
>> or indeed others on this page that may relate to the spectrum of
>> issues that keeps all these lists alive and actively arriving in our
>> in=boxes, would help inform that wider audience.
>>
>> It is a key reason why I have been working with openDemocracy to
>> present these issues to a wider readership so all comments welcome to
>> the ICANN piece.
>>
>> Other articles, including a critical analysis of a UK-based
>> initiative for digital rights by Paul Bernal available at
>> https://www.opendemocracy.net/hri.
>>
>> warm wishes
>>
>> MF
>>
>> On 17/10/2016 14:07, parminder wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Monday 17 October 2016 05:20 PM, Marianne Franklin wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Dear Parminder
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for sending over this piece in a growing literature on ICANN
>>>> and it future.
>>>>
>>>> Just to note that Pranesh's less than celebratory analysis for the
>>>> ICANN transition has been published on the openDemocracy series,
>>>> Human Rights and the Internet, at
>>>> https://www.opendemocracy.net/digitaLiberties/pranesh-prakash/jurisdiction-taboo-topic-at-icann.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Thanks Marianne,
>>>
>>> Yes, absolutely not at all celebratory! I had read it a few months
>>> back, and should have had it in my mind when I made that comment.
>>> But then, isnt it surprising that when two of the very few CS groups
>>> in India consider that not much has happened with the so called
>>> 'transition' in terms of loosening of US control over ICANN, there
>>> is simply no murmurs in the CS community globally to actually take
>>> this issue up - in a political manner, like making a statement and
>>> so on. I may repeat what I have said so many tomes earlier - in all
>>> the multistakeholder meetings that I saw organised in India in the
>>> transition processes it was always concluded that there are two key
>>> issues to sort out - an 'external' oversight mechanism, and
>>> jurisdiction issue. What we have is an oversight which is hardly
>>> external, and the jurisdiction issue is being completely buried. But
>>> still it seems that everyone -- more or less -- is just celebrating
>>> the 'transition' with no critical take being adopted.
>>>
>>> As Pranesh's article points out, seeking a host country agreement or
>>> in other words jurisdictional immunity for ICANN from the US was the
>>> demand of Internet Governance Caucus in 2005. The all round social-
>>> political importance of the domain name system has only greatly
>>> enhanced in the last 10 years, and so the US's jurisdictional
>>> control over it should be ever less acceptable -- but why is no
>>> major civil society group today able to get up and say the same
>>> thing which IGC said and asked for in 2005? Especially when a
>>> process is actually taking place which is formally examining the
>>> jurisdiction question. I sometimes participate in that ICANN WG on
>>> jurisdiction, where every effort is on to bury this question - and i
>>> finds almost no civil society voice there.
>>>
>>> People here may want to ponder this question - has the US
>>> stranglehold on the IG discourse actually tightened since then -
>>> meaning WSIS in 2005? Or perhaps there could be other reasons, which
>>> I did not think of, and others can enlighten me on. (not addressed
>>> to you Marianne :), it is general)
>>>
>>> Parminder
>>>
>>> PS: Excuse me to cc this to IGC list, where a similar discussion is
>>> on... Those who respond may exercise discretion whether they want to
>>> respond to both elists or one of them.
>>>
>>>
>>>> best
>>>>
>>>> MF
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 15/10/2016 15:48, parminder wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> -------- Forwarded Message --------
>>>>> Subject: Is the Internet Really Free of US Control?
>>>>> Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2016 20:11:26 +0530
>>>>> From: parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
>>>>> To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
>>>>> <governance at lists.igcaucus.org>, < <"
>>>>> bestbits\""@lists.bestbits.net>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi All
>>>>>
>>>>> I wrote this commentary piece in the Economic and Political Weekly
>>>>> of India on ICANN's oversight transition. For such an important
>>>>> and multi-faceted event, it is surprising that I have come across
>>>>> no article that is other than absolutely celebratory about it, and
>>>>> catches properly the different nuances that are involved. Such a
>>>>> monochromatic discourse in the global IG space is not a good
>>>>> indication. There is an especial lack of views from a progressive
>>>>> and social justice perspective, and from the geopolitical South,
>>>>> both of which I have tried to catch in this brief article.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> *Internet Governance: Is the Internet Really Free of US Control?*
>>>>>
>>>>> "The recent decision of the United States government to cede its
>>>>> control over the internet’s naming and addressing system to the
>>>>> Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a
>>>>> US-based international non-profit body, is heralded as a
>>>>> significant step towards the globalisation of internet’s core
>>>>> infrastructure. But with ICANN having no special jurisdictional
>>>>> immunity and subject to the whims of the judicial and legislative
>>>>> branches of the US government as well as many of its executive
>>>>> agencies, the decision seems more symbolic than meaningful."
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/42/web-exclusives/internet-governance.html
>>>>>
>>>>> Comments are welcome.
>>>>> parminder
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ____________________________________________________________
>>>>> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>>>>> bestbits at lists.bestbits.net.
>>>>> To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:
>>>>> http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Marianne Franklin, PhD
>>>> Professor of Global Media and Politics
>>>> Convener: Global Media & Transnational Communications Program
>>>> Goldsmiths (University of London)
>>>> Department of Media & Communications
>>>> New Cross, London SE14 6NW
>>>> Tel: +44 207 9197072
>>>> <m.i.franklin at gold.ac.uk>
>>>> @GloComm
>>>> http://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/franklin/
>>>> Chair of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet)
>>>> Steering Committee/Former Co-Chair Internet Rights & Principles Coalition )
>>>> www.internetrightsandprinciples.org
>>>> @netrights
>>>>
>>>> Special Series Editor, Human Rights and the Internet
>>>> https://www.opendemocracy.net/hri
>>>>
>>>> Digital Dilemmas: Power, Resistance and the Internet (Oxford University Press)
>>>> http://global.oup.com/academic/product/digital-dilemmas-9780199982707?cc=nl&lang=en&q=Digital%20dilemmas&tab=reviews#
>>>>
>>>> Championing Human Rights on the Internet (I-VI)
>>>> https://www.opendemocracy.net/marianne-franklin/championing-human-rights-on-internet-part-six-summing-up-too-much-or-not-enough
>>>>
>>>> “What does (the Study of) World Politics Sound Like?”
>>>> co-authored with Matt Davies in World Politics and Popular Culture: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies
>>>> http://www.e-ir.info/2015/04/22/edited-collection-popular-culture-and-world-politics/
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Marianne Franklin, PhD
>> Professor of Global Media and Politics
>> Convener: Global Media & Transnational Communications Program
>> Goldsmiths (University of London)
>> Department of Media & Communications
>> New Cross, London SE14 6NW
>> Tel: +44 207 9197072
>> <m.i.franklin at gold.ac.uk>
>> @GloComm
>> http://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/franklin/
>> Chair of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet)
>> Steering Committee/Former Co-Chair Internet Rights & Principles Coalition )
>> www.internetrightsandprinciples.org
>> @netrights
>>
>> Special Series Editor, Human Rights and the Internet
>> https://www.opendemocracy.net/hri
>>
>> Digital Dilemmas: Power, Resistance and the Internet (Oxford University Press)
>> http://global.oup.com/academic/product/digital-dilemmas-9780199982707?cc=nl&lang=en&q=Digital%20dilemmas&tab=reviews#
>>
>> Championing Human Rights on the Internet (I-VI)
>> https://www.opendemocracy.net/marianne-franklin/championing-human-rights-on-internet-part-six-summing-up-too-much-or-not-enough
>>
>> “What does (the Study of) World Politics Sound Like?”
>> co-authored with Matt Davies in World Politics and Popular Culture: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies
>> http://www.e-ir.info/2015/04/22/edited-collection-popular-culture-and-world-politics/
>
--
Marianne Franklin, PhD
Professor of Global Media and Politics
Convener: Global Media & Transnational Communications Program
Goldsmiths (University of London)
Department of Media & Communications
New Cross, London SE14 6NW
Tel: +44 207 9197072
<m.i.franklin at gold.ac.uk>
@GloComm
http://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/franklin/
Chair of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet)
Steering Committee/Former Co-Chair Internet Rights & Principles Coalition )
www.internetrightsandprinciples.org
@netrights
Special Series Editor, Human Rights and the Internet
https://www.opendemocracy.net/hri
Digital Dilemmas: Power, Resistance and the Internet (Oxford University Press)
http://global.oup.com/academic/product/digital-dilemmas-9780199982707?cc=nl&lang=en&q=Digital%20dilemmas&tab=reviews#
Championing Human Rights on the Internet (I-VI)
https://www.opendemocracy.net/marianne-franklin/championing-human-rights-on-internet-part-six-summing-up-too-much-or-not-enough
“What does (the Study of) World Politics Sound Like?”
co-authored with Matt Davies in World Politics and Popular Culture: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies
http://www.e-ir.info/2015/04/22/edited-collection-popular-culture-and-world-politics/
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