Internet Governance: Issues and Challenges

“Internet governance” used to just mean ICANN-related issues; today, we include under that rubric almost any policy issue related to the Internet, including standardization and resource allocation. Governance implies a polycentric, less hierarchical order; it requires transnational cooperation amongst standards developers, network operators, online service providers, users, governments and international organizations if it is to solve problems while retaining the openness and interoperability of cyberspace. The Geneva Declaration however did tone down its revolutionary flavor by dividing the areas of governance concerns between the different multi-stakeholders such that the public policy role was assigned to the nation-States. This unification of the platform for all modes of communication and information – known as “digital convergence” – makes all the policy conflicts and issues that were spread out over old media part of Internet politics today. For better or worse, national policy plays an important role in shaping the Internet, but the rise of cyberspace has produced, and will continue to produce, new institutions and governance arrangements that respond to its unique characteristics. Nonetheless it is very important to note that it would be rather naïve to equate the problem of internet governance to the issue of ICANN oversight.