[Translation] Open letter to the United Nations from advocates of open Internet governance

In July of this year (2024), a group of technical experts involved in the development and maintenance of the Internet (Internet) and the Web (Web), including Internet pioneer Vint Cerf and Internet inventor Tim Tim Berners-Lee has published an open letter calling on the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General and the Secretary-General’s Technology Envoy to " Maintain the global information network governance model of the past half century, which has brought bottom-up, collaboration and inclusiveness to the world."

The "Global Digital Compact Plan" was originally proposed by the United Nations Secretary-General in "Our Common Agenda" in 2020, after the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. According to the United Nations, the GDC will "outline an open, free and secure global information network and its shared principles" and is expected to formalize an agreement at an upcoming future summit in September 2024.

Technical experts and civil society organizations have expressed concerns about the GDC's formulation process and substantive content. As stated in the open letter, "The GDC was developed by a multilateral process between countries, which is different from the open, inclusive and consensus-driven approach that is accustomed to the development of the Internet and network. We are concerned that this document will become a government-led publication that will be disconnected from the Internet that people around the world are currently accustomed to.”

In addition, the open letter is also concerned about the substantive content of the GDC draft proposals, including establishing a bureaucratic governance model for technical affairs, calling for more centralized governance, and an Internet governance model that fails to fully protect traditional multi-stakeholders.

Translated from the original press release

Open letter to the United Nations
An Open Letter to the United Nations

July 1, 2024

To Secretary-General António Guterres and Special Envoy for Science and Technology Amandeep Singh Gill

For more than fifty years, the technical architecture of the Internet has continued to evolve and is maintained by multiple stakeholders. Although the Internet was born in official government laboratories, the Internet is an ever-expanding network that requires constant maintenance. Much of the work here is coordinated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) , an open, consensus-based, bottom-up, voluntary global standards organization.

Thirty-five years ago, the World Wide Web was born in the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) laboratories, and it quickly evolved into a global public tool maintained by like-minded engineers and other stakeholders in cooperation with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and development. It is also an open, consensus-based, bottom-up, voluntary global standards organization.

How do you measure the success of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)? We can measure it from today's Internet and its accompanying achievements: global communications are booming, bringing education, entertainment, information, connection and business exchanges to most people in the world. The Internet has been a catalyst for digital development, and these communities and the way they structure themselves have paid off.

We know that governments must fulfill their responsibilities to protect citizens. Therefore, as the dangers on the Internet and global information networks intensify, the government hopes to solve the problem through regulatory and legislative means. Technical architecture can enable and influence how the Internet is used, but it cannot by itself solve abuse, misinformation, inequality, or many other problems. But if measures such as regulation and legislation undermine the basic empowering nature of the Internet, the gains will outweigh the losses.

The Internet is an unusual technology because it is decentralized in nature and is built from all participating networks (the Web). Each network participates based on its own needs and priorities. Therefore, the Internet actually has no control center. This is not an accident, but a fundamental characteristic of the Internet. However, in the past few years, we have found that some people are trying to introduce a bureaucratic governance model on technical issues to solve problems on the Internet and the Web. These proposals worry us because they are an erosion of basic architecture.

In particular, some of the proposals in the Global Digital Compact (GDC) may be interpreted as national demands for more centralized network governance. If these words are still present at the end of the document, we believe that this will not only be harmful to the Internet and the Internet, but will also have a negative impact on the world economy and society.

In addition, we note that the GDC is formulated by a multilateral process between countries, which is different from the open, inclusive and consensus-driven approach used in the development of the Internet and network. Outside of some high-level concept consultations, it is difficult for non-governmental stakeholders (including Internet technical standards bodies and the larger technical community) to participate effectively in the GDC production process. We are concerned that this document will become a government-led publication that will be disconnected from the Internet that people around the world are currently accustomed to.

We therefore ask Member States, Secretary-Generals and Technical Envoys to ensure that digital governance proposals are aligned with the multi-stakeholder Internet governance practices that have given us the Internet we have today. Government involvement in digital and internet governance is necessary to address the many abuses of this global system, but we have a collective responsibility to uphold the bottom-up, collaborative and inclusive model of internet governance that has served us well in the past Half a century of service to the world.

Signatory

// All signatures are in an individual capacity; institutional affiliations are for reference only. We welcome signatures from technology leaders (current and past) from Internet standards and regulatory bodies, as well as recognized contributions to the evolution of the Internet and networks. Please send signature requests to contact@open-interne... , with a list of relevant affiliations. //

Daniel Appelquist W3C TAG co-chair
David Baron former W3C TAG
Hadley Beeman W3C TAG
Robin Berjon former W3C TAG; former W3C HTML Activity Lead
Andrew Betts former W3C TAG
Sir Tim Berners-Lee inventor of the World Wide Web; founder & emeritus director, W3C
Tim Bray former W3C TAG; Editor of XML (W3C), JSON (IETF)
Randy Bush former IESG, former ISO/WG13
Dr. Brian E. Carpenter former Group Leader, Communication Systems, CERN; former IAB chair; former ISOC BoT chair; former IETF chair
Vint Cerf Internet Pioneer
David Conrad former IANA general manager; former ICANN CTO
Martin DukeformerIESG
Dr. Lars Eggert former IETF chair; former IRTF chair
Dr. Stephen Farrell Trinity College Dublin; former IESG; former IAB
Demi Getschko .br
Christian Huitema former IAB chair
Geoff Huston former ISOC BoT chair; former IAB
Erik KlineIESG
Mallory Knodel former IAB
Olaf Kolkman former IAB chair
Konstantinos Komaitis senior resident fellow, Internet Governance lead, Democracy and Tech Initiative, Atlantic Council
Chris Lilley W3C Technical Director; former W3C TAG
Peter Linss W3C TAG co-chair
Sangwhan Moon former W3C TAG
Jun Murai former IAB; WIDE Project founder; former W3C steering committee; former ISOC BoT
Mark Nottingham former IAB; former W3C TAG
Lukasz Olejnik former W3C TAG
Colin Perkins IRTF chair
Pete Resnick former IAB; former IESG
Alex Russell former W3C TAG
Peter Saint-Andre former IESG
David Schinazi IAB
Melinda Shore IRSG; former IAB
Robert Sparks former IAB; former IESG
Lynn St.Amour former Internet Society President and CEO; former UN IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group chair
Andrew Sullivan former IAB chair
Martin Thomson W3C TAG; former IAB
Brian Trammell IRSG; former IAB
Paul Wouters IESG

(Chinese translation of organization name)

IAB: Internet Architecture Board
IESG: Internet Engineering Steering Group
IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force
IRSG: Internet Research Steering Group
IRTF: Internet Research Task Force
ISOC BoT: Internet Society Board of Trustees
W3C: Worldwide Information Network Consortium
W3C TAG: Worldwide Information Network Technical Architecture Group