Reports of controversial U.S. surveillance activities, including the monitoring of world leaders, have reinstated international debate on the issue of Internet governance. Some countries seek to leverage the scandal in order to dilute Washington’s power over some Internet infrastructure—in particular, the processes carried out by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), that U.S.-based nonprofit that handles the unique identifiers responsible for Internet connection. Click for more info.

But a wider take on Internet governance delves into a range of public policy issues, from freedom of expression to sovereignty and a lot more. As polemical policy issues have risen to fore, the idea of internet governance has fortified technical resources management to make it more stable and continually expanding with discussion of behaviors seen from Internet use at what is known as as the content layer.

Internet Governance Defined

The term, Internet governance, has changed so much over the decades, and different groups have tried to shape working definitions of it. When the Internet first opened to the bigger public in the mid-1990s, the term meant a small set of policy issues linked to the international management of domain names. But as the Internet soon became the key venue for information of all types, this definition substantially widened. In 2005, Internet governance referred to a body of rules affecting Internet use for all governments and the private sector to follow. Information policy experts emphasize that "Internet governance" does not come from an institutional hierarchy, but rather, from the coordination of so many users all over the world, most of whom are in the private sector, such as network and service operators, registries and individuals. In tandem with the said stakeholders, Click here now for more info. 

The Role of National Governments

States take charge of Internet-related policies for their own people, such as by instituting laws for the protection of intellectual property or the banning of online gambling. Some authoritarian governments actually censor political and social content with the same strict guidelines used in traditional media. In a study conducted by a Washington, DC-based research and advocacy nonprofit, more than 50% of participating countries, including the United States, are facing a decline in Internet freedom.

Roughly 50% of Internet users worldwide are found to be experiencing some form of web censorship as well, such as technical blocking of websites and legal take downs. For example, some human rights groups claim that because of China’s detention of certain popular bloggers, a vibe of dread is now discouraging Internet activism. Additionally, experts aver that online censorship in certain parts of the world would not occur without the business community’s compliance.

  

Find out more about internet governance at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Governance_Forum.