IGF 2025 WS #236 Exploring Alternative Models for Internet Governance

    Organizer 1: Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
    Organizer 2: Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
    Speaker 1: David Fairchild, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
    Speaker 2: Anriette Esterhuysen, Civil Society, African Group
    Speaker 3: Alexander Fiona, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
    Speaker 4: Mark Nottingham, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
    Format
    Roundtable
    Duration (minutes): 90
    Format description: We want to spur discussion of what might happen if the governance model for the Internet changes. We envision starting that by having the speakers outline their views, then switching to incorporation of other participant’s viewpoints.
    Policy Question(s)
    What is the appropriate model for Internet Governance? What is the value of multistakeholderism in Internet Governance?
    What will participants gain from attending this session? An understanding of the issues that alternative models for Internet governance may face An appreciation of the advantages and disadvantages of multistakeholder governance, as opposed to other models
    SDGs
    Description:

    Since the 2005 Tunis Agenda, the Internet Governance Forum has operated as a multistakeholder venue for discussion of Internet governance issues. Likewise, other Internet governance communities such as ICANN and the IETF have declared their approaches to be multistakeholder. However, recent developments could be interpreted to represent a desire by some to change the model for Internet governance to something more multilateral and top down in nature. Putting aside the motivations for such a change, this session will examine its practicalities – namely, how Internet governance would work if multistakeholderism were weakened or even abandoned. Panelists will consider how past and future issues, such as: - Domain name ownership disputes - Internet standards development - Content moderation policies - Governance of emerging technologies ... would be handed in counterfactual governance regimes, such as: - Full multilateral control - Multilateral agenda-setting - Multistakeholderism with a multilateral approval step
    Expected Outcomes
    Broader community understanding of the value of multistakeholderism. The intention is also to draft a workshop report that will then be disseminated to the various stakeholder groups.
    Hybrid Format: The session will have an online moderator who will be responsible for collecting information and questions from the online participants. depending on the number of remote participants, we will also have break out rooms.