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The WWW in the field of tension between technology and politics - Internet governance is dedicated to this topic. Prof Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Professor Emeritus of International Communications Policy and Regulation at the University of Aarhus, provides an up-to-date overview in the blog of the .de administrator DENIC eG.

Henry Kissinger, the now deceased former US Secretary of State, is said to have once said: ‘Who do I call when I want to call Europe?’ Although he could no longer remember it, the bon mot describes a problem that also applies to Internet governance: due to its decentralised structure, the Internet has no president, not even an office that you can call. According to the German government (there is no standardised global definition), the term ‘Internet governance’ refers to measures that are intended to ensure the accessibility, stability and openness of the Internet. This includes technical aspects such as the global allocation of IP addresses and the registration of domain names as well as issues of fundamental importance, including data security, artificial intelligence and net neutrality. There are platforms such as the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and its national offshoot (IGF-D), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Global Digital Compact (GDC). It is therefore difficult to maintain an overview. This is where the monthly DENIC update by Prof Wolfgang Kleinwächter, one of the most renowned experts on Internet governance, comes in.

In his review of developments in the internet governance environment in July 2024, Prof Kleinwächter first reports on the Global Digital Compact (GDC). The GDC goes back to the ‘Our Common Agenda’ initiative of UN Secretary-General António Guterres; it defines guidelines for the internet and its regulation without, however, enjoying the status of an international treaty. Its third version was distributed to the 193 UN member states; on 17 July 2024, more than ten states, including the EU, USA, Russia and the G77, broke their ‘silence’. The text is therefore deemed to have been rejected; further informal consultations on the controversial paragraphs will now follow. Since 23 July 2024, it has also been possible to register for the 19th IGF, which will take place in Riyadh in December 2024. On 26 July 2024, an informal position paper on the future of the IGF after 2025 was presented in the ‘IGF WG Strategy’; among other things, it is being discussed whether the IGF should be transformed into a formal organisation and given a new name after 2025. On 29 July 2024, the last round of negotiations for the time being on the drafting of a UN convention against cybercrime began in New York. Representatives of the business community and civil society had expressed criticism at an expert conference, stating that the current draft contained many vague formulations, particularly with regard to the definition of criminal offences, human rights safeguards and the guarantee of constitutional procedures in criminal prosecution. Finally, the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) took place in Astana on 7 July 2024. The final declaration refers to the key role of the UN in strengthening cyber security and calls for the conclusion of internationally binding treaties on both cybercrime and international cyber security; the principle of national cyber sovereignty must be reaffirmed as a fundamental principle.

We must not delude ourselves: Internet governance remains an unwieldy and tedious topic, but one that is no less exciting and important. If you want a global, decentralised, free, open and interoperable Internet that is committed to the multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance, there is no way around it. This makes it all the more worthwhile to follow Prof Kleinwächter's regular reports.

You can find the article by Prof Wolfgang Kleinwächter in German at:
https://blog.denic.de/entwicklungen-im- ... juli-2024/