[Chapter-delegates] Vint scheduled to speak in a few minutes on Digital Sovereignty link for video
Dave Burstein
daveb at dslprime.com
Wed Nov 27 08:13:35 PST 2019
https://igf2019.sched.com/event/SU2l/ws-59-digital-sovereignty-and-internet-fragmentation
do turn on the captioning because of technical problems. Details and
speakers below.
My opinion
This is big stuff. Most of the world believes the US Internet giants should
obey national law, pay taxes, and not store citizens' data abroad in
countries well-known for espionage. (Which would include China, Russia, and
the US.) This is now being called "Digital Sovereignty."
A problem with that is many countries would censor and refuse
"permissionless innovation." Based on prior comments, I think Vint will
make those points strongly. (My opinion is that multinationals should pay
standard taxes in the countries in which they operate. I also believe in
Freedom of Speech.)
This is a very complicated issue and the session should have strong
viewpoints.
Two things likely to come up are misleading at best.
The Internet is a network of networks, each of which sets their own policy.
Everyone who doesn't like a policy is likely to say, that's "fragmenting
the Internet." The head of ICANN and Columbia Professor Eli Noam have
pointed out that it's still the Internet as long as there is robust
interconnection on a technical level. The ICANN chief, and I have this on
video, agrees that countries can break with ICANN and find other ways to
still be on the Internet.
Countries can and will "block" what they think illegal. Germany wants to
block "hate speech." Thailand, criticism of the King. China, virtually any
attack on the government system.
I and most of you want to limit censorship, whether in the US or China. But
that doesn't mean Thailand or Pakistan have "fragmented the Internet.:
The second is a tendency of Internet veterans to oppose changes because
"that's not how we do things and it will break the Internet." I remember a
senior ISOC expert saying it would "break the Internet" if countries can
require ISPs to use particular routing. (The case was an Egyptian request
to route via North Africa rather than Italy, where they believed the CIA
was intercepting everything.)
Things like routing changes, including limiting the number of international
connections to a few points, may be bad ideas. But so long as the
connection to the "networks of networks" is maintained, they are still part
of the Internet. (See Eli Noam)
We should avoid using the terms "fragment" or "break" the Internet the
Internet unless that's clearly what's going on. A worm that knocks out many
networks would be a break. So would a country using submarines to cut all
the cables.
Not playing by Chinese, US, ICANN or other precedents does not by itself
fragment or break anything. The words have become meaningless. Dave
Burstein.
Wednesday, November 27 • 15:00 - 16:30
WS 59 Digital Sovereignty and Internet Fragmentation
<https://igf2019.sched.com/event/SU2l/ws-59-digital-sovereignty-and-internet-fragmentation#>
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The tension between national sovereignty and the global Internet is
probably the single most fundamental Internet governance issue today.
The Internet protocols create a globally connected virtual space; in the
technical structure of cyberspace distance and territory do not matter.
Governmental authority, on the other hand, is bounded by geographic
territory and each government is supposed to have supreme authority in its
territory. Ever since the World Summit on the Information Society,
governments have been trying to insert the concept of sovereignty into
Internet governance discussions. On the other hand, many Internet users,
platforms and service providers have been promoting the benefits of
seamless global interconnection. There is a clash between the two distinct
models of Internet governance.
The purpose of this workshop is to explore the new discourse and practice
of national sovereignty over cyberspace and to consider its implications
for Internet openness vs. fragmentation. But in cybersecurity traditional
security and stability practices have had to be modified, often relying on
multistakeholder cooperation and cross-border operations in which the power
of states is shared with many other actors. Today, in a context of
cyber-attacks by state actors and a globalized digital economy, efforts to
assert territorial control into cyberspace and project it onto all things
digital are gathering momentum.
The session is an interactive roundtable. It includes a diverse and expert
set of prominent personalities:
- Lise Fuhr, European Telecommunications Network Operators Association.
- Vinton Cerf, Google
- Ilona Stadnik, St. Petersburg University, Russia.
- Alexander Isavnin, Internet Protection Society of Russia
- Ambassador Achilles Zaluar, Foreign Ministry of Brazil
- Xu Peixi, Communications University of China
- Mona Badran, Cairo University Egypt
Moderators:
- Dr. Milton Mueller, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology and
Director, Internet Governance Project
- Dr. William J Drake, International Fellow and Lecturer in the Media
Change & Innovation Division of the Department of Communication and Media
Research at the University of Zurich
Policy questions to be addressed:
1. The nature of national sovereignty and its extension to 'digital
sovereignty' or ‘cyberspace sovereignty’
- Is digital sovereignty compatible with the globalized access provided
by the Internet protocols?
- What is gained and what is lost by trying to make cyberspace conform
to principles of territorial sovereignty?
- How does sovereignty in cyberspace relate to/differ from traditional
notions of sovereignty that shaped international communications policy
since the 1850s?
2. National effects of digital sovereignty:
- How do attempts by some countries to create a "sovereign Internet"
affect the human rights of Internet users?
- How do national boundaries on data flows affect economic development,
competition and efficiency in the global digital economy?
- How does sovereignty in cyberspace affect the security and privacy of
Internet users?
3. Global effects of digital sovereignty:
- Is digital sovereignty compatible with a global internet or will it
lead to fragmentation of the infrastructure or the services and processes
that it supports?
- How do national boundaries impact foreign firms seeking to operate
locally? Are they consistent with international trade and other
multilateral obligations?
- Why and how are countries trying to create "national Internets?"
4. Governance responses:
- Would it be better to conceive of cyberspace as a global commons
similar to the high seas or outer space? What are the policy and governance
implications?
- What blend of institutional settings would be useful in addressing the
conflicts engendered by by strongly statist digital sovereignty practices?
What would be the role of e.g. security arrangements, international trade
agreements, international privacy agreements, MLATs and other efforts to
deal with access issues of concern to law enforcement and others?
- Is there any role in this discussion for multistakeholder cooperation,
or is sovereignty a matter on which only states should engage? If there is
a role, how could this be structured?
------------------------------
Session Organizers
[image: avatar for Milton Mueller]
<https://igf2019.sched.com/speaker/milton8>Milton Mueller
<https://igf2019.sched.com/speaker/milton8>
Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
Milton Mueller is the O.G. of I.G. He directs the Internet Governance
Project, a center for research and engagement on global Internet
governance. Mueller's books Will the Internet Fragment? (Polity, 2017),
Networks and States: The global politics of Internet governance (MIT
Press... Read More → <https://igf2019.sched.com/speaker/milton8>
------------------------------
Wednesday November 27, 2019 15:00 - 16:30
Saal Europa <https://igf2019.sched.com/venue/Saal+Europa> *Sonnenallee 225,
12057 Berlin, Germany
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