IGF 2018 WS #224 The Past, the Present and the Future for Multi-stakeholderism

- Session Type (Workshop, Open Forum, etc.):  Round Table

- Title: IGF 2018 WS #224 The Past, the Present and the Future for Multi-stakeholderism

- Date & Time: Monday, 12 November, 2018- 10:40 to 12:10

- Organizer(s): Yeseul Kim, Olumuyiwa Caleb Ogundele, Ayden Férdeline, Sandra Hoferichter

- Chair/Moderator: Yeseul Kim

- Rapporteur/Notetaker: Yeseul Kim

- List of speakers and their institutional affiliations (Indicate male/female/ transgender male/ transgender female/gender variant/prefer not to answer):

Speaker 1: Markus Kummer, M, ICANN
Speaker 2: Ayden Férdeline, M, Mozilla Foundation 
Speaker 3: Sandra Hoferichter, F, EuroDIG
Speaker 4: Yeseul Kim, F, ISOG-IGF Ambassador
Speaker 5: Kuo Wu, M, TWNIC

- Theme (as listed here): Evolution of Internet Governance

- Subtheme (as listed here): Multistakeholderism

- Please state no more than three (3) key messages of the discussion. [300-500 words]

Multistakekholder model has been first suggested in 2003 as a new methodology to embrace and enhance the participation from sectors outside business and governmental organizations. It was officially adopted to be the participation methods for Intergovernmental and International forums in WSIS 2005 in Tunis. Before that, most of the intergovernmental organizations have been run based on multilateral model, not multistaekholder model, which only permits conversations and dialogues among different governments, not including other private sectors. It was extremely hard for actors or stakeholders other than governmental organizations to voice their opinions especially in the intergovernmental conferences and forum which are run based upon multilateral model as they were only given 5 or so minutes at the end of meetings to speak up. It was only after the Internet Governance Forum that people outside business sectors or governmental sectors started to be actively engaged in policy making and agenda shaping. This is the very brief history of the adoption of the multistkaeholder mode in the Internet Governance Field. However, since WSIS and other orgs started to embrace multistakeholder model, people from civil society and technical community could also start to be actively involved in the policy making especially concerning the Internet.

Ayden Férdeline (Mozilla Fellow) especially said that multistakeholderism is desirable and something to be protected, but not necessarily necessary for the Internet to governed. He explained that there are two classical explanations for multistakeholderism: firstly, that it was a natural extension of the Enlightenment and Jeffersonian democratic principles, who noted that the exercise of political power without the consent of the governed is illegitimate. Multistakeholder governance thus means that representatives of parties other than governments – like public interest advocacy groups, business associations, and other interested parties –  can participate in governmental policy deliberations alongside governments. Therefore, Internet institutions like ICANN gain their legitimacy to govern in direct proportion to which they facilitate the participation of impacted stakeholders. The second explanation he put forward was that one can not have a global infrastructure whose interoperability is dependent upon dozens of different overlapping rules and frameworks that all must be checked to determine valid communications.

Overall, multistakeholder model is not a static, complete model but rather a dynamic, ever evolving model as we’ve seen over the past 13 years of IGF. As has been seen in IANA transition, the model has become more open to the civil society and has become much more stable over the years.

- Please elaborate on the discussion held, specifically on areas of agreement and divergence. [300 words] Examples: There was broad support for the view that…; Many [or some] indicated that…; Some supported XX, while others noted YY…; No agreement…

Panelists broadly agreed that multistakeholder model is the present and the future of the Internet governance, and the majority of the panleists also agreed that the model needs to be further supported by the Internet community at large. This was especially the viewpoints from the (comparatively) elder panellists, who have been making the multistkaholder model per se, and who have been working to disperse the model as much as possible. However, Ayden, who’s the youngest among the panellists, opined that with the rising nationalistic attempt to tame and govern the Internet on each nation’s whim, the multistkaeholder model is not being tested as the role of civil society seems to be not as powerful and effective as that of the governmental organizations. Thus, although there was a broad consensus on the fact that multistakeholder actually been functioning as it has been envisaged to be, as the strong regulation and other legal regimes started to dominate the discussions of the Internet Governance throughout the world, it seemed that panellists actually did not consent upon whether the model can be the leading example of the governance model for the future in the end.  

- Please describe any policy recommendations or suggestions regarding the way forward/potential next steps. [200 words]

Ayden Ferdeline explicitly expressed the following suggestions saying that to ensure that the Internet operates as a global common, these frameworks and policies needed to be established through open and transparent multistakeholder processes because the historical solution to this problem (global treaty organizations) can provide overall commonality of framework but fail to provide for open and equitable non-governmental participation. He expressed concern, however, that this may no longer be true, as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation has effectively validated states taking extraterritorial regulatory measures, and provides proof that state interests can be maintained via the creation of regulations with Internet-wide effects. In order for the multistakeholder model to remain effective, he suggested that improvements are required, such as better efforts to avoid capture by certain stakeholder groups, more effective dispute resolution processes, and a focus on measuring and improving performance.

Overall, systematic implementation of the model throughout the national, regional and international IGFs and some different additions can be thought of, and also can be added to the model with global resources and more decentralized, non-governmental efforts such as independent conflict resolution systems for the matters happening concerning the cyberspace.

- What ideas surfaced in the discussion with respect to how the IGF ecosystem might make progress on this issue? [150 words]

As the IGF is only celebrating its 13th birthday this year, we need to watch the model naturally grow further into its more mature form, and thus, it’s still early to say that the multistkaeholder model failed, or multisktaeholder model is destined to be overwhelmed by the governmental regulations which go against the very nature of the model per se. Sandra explicitly argued that for the model to be mature and to be fully developed, the community support from all the sector is necessary and required,

- Please estimate the total number of participants.

5 speakers (4 panellists and a moderator) and about 30 audience in the room.

- Please estimate the total number of women and gender-variant individuals present.

2 Female speakers including the moderator

- To what extent did the session discuss gender issues, and if to any extent, what was the discussion? [100 words]

Sandra Hofereichter assimilated the progressive development of multistakeholder model to that of women’s right movement (thus, the development of feminism). She also emphasized that the change never comes fast and without effort, and thus we need to see how the multisktaeholder model evolves in the future over time. However, aside from this, the session did not specifically deal with any gender issues and rather focused on the fundamental philosophy and history of multistakeholder model.

- Session outputs and other relevant links (URLs): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhieI61IJuo