This document provides an overview of internet governance and policy best practices. It covers: - Definitions of internet governance and the issues it encompasses such as infrastructure, standards, legal matters and access. - A brief history of internet governance including the establishment of key organizations like ICANN, IETF and involvement of the UN. - An introduction to content control including the types of content commonly restricted, technical and legal methods of control, and a global overview of censorship. - Issues regarding regulation of content by private companies as well as challenges in the quasi-public sphere. - Examples of content restriction cases and efforts to protect free expression on private platforms like the Global Network Initiative.

1. Advancing Internet Policy in the
Digital Age:
Best Practices
& Lessons Learned
Created by:
Jillian C. York
Electronic Frontier Foundation

2. Meet your trainer:
Jillian York, Electronic Frontier Foundation
jillian@eff.org

3. Working definition of Internet governance:
“Internet governance is the development
and application by Governments, the private
sector, and civil society, in their respective
roles, of shared principles, norms, rules,
decision-making procedures, and
programmes that shape the evolution and
use of the Internet.”
Source: WSIS

4. Internet Governance (IG)
What does IG cover?
• Internet infrastructure and standardisation
• Technical standards (e.g., IP, DNS)
• Safety/integrity (e.g., spam, security)
• Legal issues (e.g., privacy, copyright, cybercrime)
• Economic issues (e.g., taxation)
• Access issues
• Socio-cultural issues (e.g., free expression)

5. International Governance:
A Brief History
• Late 1960s: US develops DARPA, TCP/IP
• First regulation: Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF)
• Mid-’90s: “DNS War” as private companies
get involved
• 1998: Establishment of ICANN to regulate
domains
• 2003: First World Summit on the
Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva

6. A Brief History, continued
• 2005: Second WSIS in Tunis brought
about conflict
• 2006: First Internet Governance Forum
(IGF) promoting multistakeholderism in
Internet governance
• Since 2006: Greater international
developments in IGF, ICANN, other for a
• 2013: “WSIS+10” in February 2013

7. ICANN:
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
What does it do?
• Coordinates the Internet protocol address
spaces (IPv4 and IPv6)
• Assigns address blocks to regional Internet
registries (e.g., .uk, .eg)
• Manages top-level domain name space (e.g.,
.com, .net)

8. ICANN, continued
• Non-profit, private org based in the United
States
• Open process of decision-making

9. IANA:
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
• Subordinate to ICANN, contracted to the
US Department of Commerce
• In charge of numbers, IP addresses

10. The UN
• UN involvement: The IGF vs. the ITU
• Internet Governance Forum (IGF):
Multistakeholderism
• International Telecommunication Union
(ITU): Governments

11. Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
Article 19:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
and expression; this right includes freedom to
hold opinions without interference and to
seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.”

12. International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR)
Article 19
1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without
interference
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this
right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,
either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or
through any other media of his choice.
3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this
article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It
may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these
shall only be such as are provided by law and are
necessary:
a) For the respect of the rights or reputations of others;
b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre
public) or of public health or morals.

13. Introduction to Content Control

14. Content Control
What types of content are commonly
controlled online?
• Political speech
• Obscene content
• Social issues, human rights information
• “Hate speech,” blasphemy
• Threats to national security
• Intellectual property

15. Technical Controls
Technical mechanisms of control:
• IP blocking
• DNS poisoning
• Keyword filtering
• URL blocking
• Deep packet inspection
• Attacks (DDoS, malware)

16. Content Control: A Global Overview
Source: Reporters Without Borders,

17. Qatar: Transparency in Censorship

18. Legal Controls
• Copyright-related restrictions
– Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
– International treaties (e.g., ACTA, TPP)
– “Three-strikes” laws (e.g., HADOPI)
• Defamation, Libel, and Lese Majesty
– Criminal (e.g., Thailand)
– Civil (e.g., UK, Turkey)
– Blocking of websites (e.g., India, Palestine)

19. Legal Controls
• Obscenity, hate speech
– Dozens of countries place restrictions on certain
types of speech
– Some restrictions justified under ICCPR.
• Intermediary liability
– Intermediaries are often held responsible for the
content they host.
– Very few countries provide liability protections for
intermediaries

20. Regulation by companies
• Private companies have increasing power
over content
• Governments frequently enact pressure on
companies to restrict content or hand over
user data

21. Regulation by companies, cont‟d
• Companies are subject to laws in the
jurisdictions in which they work
• Privacy and speech laws vary widely by
jurisdiction, presenting challenges for
companies
• 2004: Shi Tao and Yahoo!

22. The quasi-public sphere: challenges
• Intermediaries have the right to restrict
speech and make their own regulations
• Many companies go beyond the First
Amendment (US) or Article 19 in
regulating speech

23. Case: No „Palestinian‟ pages

24. Case: Facebook‟s “real name” policy

25. Case: No Appeals
• “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to
reactivate your account or respond to your
email directly. This decision is final and
cannot be appealed.”
• Change in 2011: Appeals system
introduced after repeated pressure on
Facebook.

26. What is being done to protect speech
on private platforms?
• Global Network Initiative
• Who Has Your Back?
• Individual advocacy

27. Global Network Initiative
• Founded in 2008
• Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft founding
members
• Multistakeholder
• Seeks to safeguard freedom of speech
and privacy against government
restrictions

28. Other efforts: “Who has your back?”

29. Day 2:
User Rights & Safety

30. Domestic Internet Governance
• What are some principles for protecting
user rights?
• How does Palestine compare to the rest of
the world?

31. Your Security
• Review of risk assessment principles
What program should I use to:
• Email?
• Chat?
• Text message?
• Voice chat?

32. Your Site‟s Security
• Where should I host my site?
• How can I mirror my site?
• How do I backup my site?
• What else do I need to know?