Who rules the internet - Assignment Example

Answer In the scenario, 193 member countries of United Nations had come together in Dubai to rectify the telecommunication rules that exist in international treaty as rules had not changed since 1988. The technical details needed to be sorted out and streamlined to include internet services across the globe. But the technical details were diverted towards the freedom of internet and the damaging repercussions to the global trade if new rules were introduced to control the internet. The conference was divided into two distinct views. The first view opposed any rules on cyberspace use by United Nations as it would allow governments to evolve new checks and control that would adversely impact web business. The other view was that as it is inherent part of telecom, government control must be exercised.
Answer 2
The major stakeholders were the 193 member states of the United Nations. Other stakeholders were private business, corporate world and the society at large. The Western group, led by United States, United Kingdom and Canada along with 55 other countries had opposed the draft treaty. They asserted that in the last 24 years, without UN regulation, internet has hugely benefitted society, giving significant economic boost to the global business and world economy. Thus, cyberspace and internet should not be controlled by individual states and its standards should be set by the private companies, citizens and the communities. The second group, comprising of China, Russia and some Gulf countries wanted greater control over internet as it uses telecom services and without regulation and rules, it could be misused by vested interests.
Answer 3
In order to address the issues of the scenario, the team would have to look at the various perspectives of the internet and how individual states exercise control over it. It needs to conduct survey of the citizen groups across the world for their opinion on the issue raised during the conference. This would help the team to understand how internet promotes freedom of speech and how cyberspace maintains its own set of standards. The survey would also help establish the view of the majority and help understand how the individual states or the governments ensure that cyberspace complies with their laws. This would provide greater transparency to the existing checks and controls on internet which could then be used as fundamental plank to get consensus on widely used checks and control to restrict world wise misuse of the internet by vested interests.
Answer 4
The two groups need to develop wider perspectives to understand the viewpoints of each other. Special cell should be created within United Nation-ITU that would help sort out differences. Special cell should have members coming from the two groups so that frequent brainstorming sessions could be conducted for consensus view on the checks and control. It must be emphasized to the two warring factions that while
Internet needs to maintain its freedom, it also requires the use of telecommunication as it only reaches individual through comprehensive network of telecommunication within the member states. The technicalities are therefore linked to the use of internet and must be recognized as such by the Western groups. The Cell could be used to persuade Western group to evolve common laws that are used in their countries and discuss them with other member countries. The consensus on the checks and control become important because internet could be easily targeted by the vested interest groups like terrorists to cause mass destructions. Read More