Internet Governance

Why in news?

Brazilian society celebrates three years of the enactment of the Internet Bill of Rights (Marco Civil da Internet).

Internet Bill of Rights:

It is the first ever national law to “establish principles, guarantees, rights and obligations for the use of the Internet” and has been praised internationally for its progressive nature.

What is the significance?

• The Bill has brought transparency and legal security to the Brazilian digital landscape.
• With the current legislation, any request of an Internet user to remove personal information from social media or website must be promptly honoured.
• Moreover, the so-called metadata—for example, information about one’s date and time of access—must be stored under absolute secrecy by telecommunication providers and may only be disclosed in response to a court order.
• The Bill of Rights has also affirmed the principle of network neutrality.

• The Brazilian Marco Civil is not only a product of lawmakers, but of Brazilian society as a whole.
• Its original idea stems from protests of civil society organizations against an Internet criminalization draft Bill that would typify crimes such as illegal downloads, electronic financial fraud and paedophilia.
• Cyber activists claimed that before criminalizing Internet users’ behaviour, their rights and responsibilities had to be defined.

What is going on in the international arena?

• Brazil is the only country to have hosted the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) twice [Rio de Janeiro (2007) and Joao Pessoa (2015)].
• This was the first ever multi-stakeholder “bottom-up” process to agree on a set of Internet governance principles and a road map for the future evolution of the Internet.
• Within ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)—the California-based company responsible for managing the Internet “address book”—Brazil has been vocal in defending the suppression of its unilateral command.
• And in the context of the UN Human Rights Council, Brazil and Germany have proposed a resolution on the principle that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online”.
• The resolution ultimately resulted in the establishment of the role of the special rapporteur on the right to privacy, whose final report is expected to be released in 2018.

• During the 10-year review of the World Summit of Information Society (WSIS+10), in New York, in December 2015, Brazil, together with India and other delegations, played a key role in overcoming the traditional polarization between countries that either only support multi-stakeholderism or otherwise defend an exclusive intergovernmental management of the Internet.

What is the way ahead?

• While cyber security matters require the leadership of governments, given their legal implications, topics such as the coordination of critical Internet resources are better treated under a multi-sectoral scheme.
• Similarly, the definition of Internet communication standards should be guided by the private sector and academic/engineering bodies, due to their technical capabilities, while transnational electronic trade rules need to be deliberated under a multilateral arrangement.

Source: Live Mint