Internet Governance, Multistakeholder Environment and Diversity

In a Least Developing Country (LDC) like Nepal, Internet governance is a very least expected topic that makes it to any national level dialogue process. Though various concepts and technologies find its way for communication and discussion, internet governance is still in progress of finding a channel among various stakeholders. Its identity struggles among various stakeholders, who shift their responsibilities in being carefree of putting a monster in a box and criticizing the  negative aspect of internet or social media. We fail to address the issues of its development and values where the current evolution in terms of diversity and adaptation matters.

We have made it or we have created it and we need to accept and move forwards towards finding a proper solution giving it the collaborative approach of multistakeholderism and trust.

Our society of today is not just limited within countable use of internet which prioritizes the involvement and openness of how the internet has evolved and will be further interpreted.

Whether you talk about leadership or technical people, the scope, role and objective of internet governance is very much hidden within the text  where most of the people in power and chair even fail to even address the issue. In recent development, Nepal has updated or upgraded with various wireless broadband technologies and policies,  but when it comes to awareness of internet and its core values people at leadership and normal layman still uses the internet without the knowledge of its basic core values.

THIS IS THE REALITY AND  WE ARE BLINDLY USING AND SPREADING THE USE OF INTERNET, MAKING PEOPLE MORE VULNERABLE.

It is used basically for a  number of applications where these devices are related to its output rather than giving a fair value of understanding or building the moral values of using the internet and its related technology. And maybe because of this the wrong use or the wrong interpretation is happening in most of the cases.

“I strongly believe, internet has been passed on to the developing world not as a service or facility, but it has been passed on as a part of a business promotion strategy which is more focused towards generating revenue rather than awareness and value.”

Reality of today, is  these gaps have been hindering people for its development in countries like Nepal, where internet is treated just as a business commodity and  the government is more focused about the taxes, the private companies are worried about their revenue and subscription and user groups are always worried about their connection only. More or less policies are made limiting the scope and role where survey and research at done at a very minimum criteria of fulfilling the gaps. Likewise diversity is yet another issues which has been long addressed as well. There is no point of talking or discussion about the core value or for what reason it has been phased out or how can we use it in a proper way of ensuring human values.

It is the limitation of human boundaries where we have created this gap and we need to overcome it by creating better core values.

Recently, I was invited to host a program called guffgaff organized  by LoomNepal which is a social organization working towards the rights of women and LGBT group. The program was themed internet freedom and FoE in Internet but with the level of participation, interest and queries I was pretty surprised interacting with the various stakeholders  that internet of today was no different than internet of yesterday. It was a great learning opportunity talking with youths, & other stakeholders, including the #LGBT community leaders. the LGBT group leaders expressed their level of concerned about how the internet is wrongly being used in slashing their rights and FoE. They have been deprived from the government and from polices which even fails to address their issues and rights at times of need.

Certainly, #FoE & #internetfreedom are issues of our concern, they are basic right of any individual ensured by the constitution of Nepal but how many of the citizen know about it is a question.

We need more #collaboration & #cooperation in terms of making governance visible & practical. It still is repressive, offensive and unsecured for the citizen from various angles . It was still the same at various levels of policy enactment and cooperation that was focused more towards promoting business to organization only.

In absence of proper internet core values we have made the internet a compulsive, addictive, un-manged daily commodity which was evolving as a bad habit.

The government was focused more towards regulation, the private sector towards business and the people are lost in communication and adaptation of social media and entertainment redeeming the real values of the internet.

Let's talk & let's be sensitive about these issues only then we can #change our society but first we have understand these core values of internet and further work towards creating awareness. Only then things can change or else  it is just a funding project that works without sustainability option.  

Event Link: Internet Freedom and FoE discussion

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Why is IRPC Charter important in Asia Pacific ?

Internet Rights and Principles Coalition  (IRPC) Charter is an important edition of document supplementing the principles and rights of individual internet users in any developing and least developed country. Especially in Asia Pacific region the need and use of such document in immense as there is a gap in recognition and awareness of rights of internet users.
If you look at the current internet governance practice then you will see there is a vivid practice of internet governance where there is gap in between stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities this is happening due to the dynamics of internet.

As we all know and support standardization, it’s a must for the achieving digital equality where IRPC Charter helps in the overall governance process lobbies and facilitates better awareness situation and cooperation for individual internet rights and responsibilities.

The importance of IRPC Charter is not just limited in defining the rights and responsibilities of individual internet users but it helps to explore the possibilities of internet ecosystem and further expanding the concept of Internet of things where adaptation and acceptance has become a key answer to the whole Internet development process.

As the internet is growing, problems related to internet is growing, these problems are not occurring due to technical aspect but to an extent, it occurs due to lack of definition, awareness and vagueness of cyber policies and regulations. The gap and interpretation of internet core values due to lack of standardization has marginalized people in terms of access, resources and many other problems.
In most of these cases, if you look at the Asia Pacific practice there is a lack of proper cyber rules and regulation where there is a gaps of proper balance in policy and action.
The problem starts with limited core values which is then followed by vague and undefined rules and regulation that have no follow up mechanism. These gaps are so intense that irregularities are manipulating the development indicators in such a way, it’s creating an overall concept of adaptation and understanding where people are fall prey.

Similarly, standardization has been a major problem for cyber policies and internet governance process which differs radically from one country to another. May be this is one of the biggest reasons for the growing problems of digital divide and net neutrality. Even in Asia Pacific there is a huge gap of economies that are rated high and low residing side by side where people may have the same rights but they have variation of action and policy mechanism.

Likewise, technology and its industry is booming but its catering the same community that is much thriving over to the old definitions which is resistant and has problems in adaptation and understanding the new technologies and its core values.

Apart from this, Internet in context of the developing countries has been passed on without any preparation of securing the rights of individual users which cannot be denied.
It majorly lacks practices of understanding the building block of internet itself which hinders its values. The radical development of technology and the differentiating policies certainly creates an overwhelming combination of a cocktail that compresses the voices and energy. When talking about internet core values, these practices fail to recognize the overall process of internet Governance and hinders the overall internet ecosystem. Our rights and responsibilities are prejudices to these practices that are limited within the limitation of countries and regions. IRPC Charter helps to facilitates and creates a situation of better platform of communication of preexisting and on real time individual rights.
These problems can only be solved by

• Capacity building programs,
• Awareness campaigns
• Standardization of policy and definition

According to the Digital Dividend Report 2016 of the World Bank, “The report examines how the Internet can be a force for development, especially for the poor in developing countries. While the report documents many profound and transformational effects of digital technology, it finds that the broader benefits have fallen short and are unevenly distributed. The report argues that to ensure that everyone benefits, technology adoption will not be enough. Countries will need to address the “analogue components”, for example by strengthening regulations enabling firms to connect and compete, adapting worker’s skills to the demands of the new economy, and ensuring that institutions are accountable.”

Today’s internet is the internet of absolute value which is independent and which strive for the right of individual in terms of their access, resource and use.  The pace of internet is growing and with the growth new concepts of multistakeholderism, collaborative leadership are also coming up which needs to be neutralized in terms of standardization and acceptance where the concept like IRPC Charter helps to created better adaptation and acceptance strategy.
Let’s hope a day will come where there will be no barriers and people will have one technology internet and one religion humanity.

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