“Internet Freedom” and Post-Snowden Global Internet Governance

The big story for the 2012 Internet Governance Forum in Baku was the almost overwhelming (and overpowering) emphasis placed by the US government delegation and its corporate allies (primarily Google) and its associates in (primarily US based) Civil Society on what was termed “Internet Freedom” and Multistakeholderism as its primary governance modality.

The campaign was very well orchestrated and coordinated (through the US delegation led by a US Ambassador and the head of the NTIA Lawrence Strickling) who insisted that any “Internet governance” position which included any form of “government involvement” would necessarily imply or result in government’s “takeover” or “control” of the Internet. Further, it was vociferously asserted that any deviation from this path was by definition an infringement of “Internet Freedom” and part of a slippery slope leading to full-on government suppression of “free speech” on the Internet. read more