The Internet Society commends the co-facilitators’ leadership and openness in facilitating stakeholders’ participation in the WSIS+20 review process and believes that continued transparency throughout the negotiations on the text will be crucial in ensuring a successful outcome document. Additionally, we strongly encourage member states to deepen their engagement with non-governmental stakeholders as negotiations advance.
We are pleased to see that stakeholder feedback from the written inputs, consultations on the Zero Draft, and the co-facilitators’ engagements have been considered in the first revision. This includes strengthening the language in the Internet governance section to reaffirm commitments to the WSIS vision and the Global Digital Compact (GDC) and noting the NETmundial+10 guidelines for multistakeholder collaboration and consensus-building. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has served as the world’s primary multistakeholder platform for dialogue on Internet governance, and we commend the references to the IGF intersessional activities and the National, Regional, and Youth Internet Governance Forums (NRIs). Additionally, we welcome strengthening accountability for the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines and calls to further develop the arrangements outlined in the Tunis Agenda and the Summit of the Future, to continue supporting the implementation of the WSIS vision and objectives, as well as the integration of the Global Digital Compact (GDC).
As noted in our input to the Zero Draft, there are still sections of the draft that require strengthening. While Rev. 1 acknowledges the IGF’s value and provides a permanent mandate, there needs to be clear pathways to securing sustainable, long-term funding for the IGF. As we noted in our input to the Zero Draft and elements paper, financial sustainability is central to preserving the IGF’s independence and capacity to support stakeholder engagement globally. To this end, existing IGF funders, such as the Internet Society, and other stakeholders should be consulted in the Secretary-General’s pursuit of providing a recommendation for sustainable funding.
Additionally, there is still considerable work to be done to create an enabling environment that supports meaningful connectivity and an open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet. It is essential that the draft explicitly references elements that can support the achievement of an enabling environment, such as measures to foster investment, innovation, and technological development. These include open access to data, proportionate taxation and licensing fees, access to finance, efficient allocation of radio frequency spectrum, infrastructure sharing models, and community-based approaches. Furthermore, insufficient recognition is given to community-centered connectivity initiatives, which have emerged to provide Internet access to communities where commercial options are unavailable or unviable.
We encourage the co-facilitators to build on this momentum by addressing the remaining gaps to ensure that the WSIS+20 outcome document reinforces an open, inclusive, and sustainable digital future. The comments above provide some overarching reflections on the first revision of the Zero Draft and are complemented by the matrix below. Unlike our matrix for the Zero Draft, which provided a broad range of paragraph-by-paragraph feedback, this matrix focuses exclusively on the Internet Society’s priorities for Rev. 1 of the Zero Draft. This document represents our ongoing efforts to identify how the language proposed in the first revision of the WSIS+20 Zero Draft aligns with the vision of an open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet for everyone. The rationale offered in this document is the result of collaboration among the Internet Society staff, community members, and partners.
This analysis has been endorsed by some Internet Society chapters, individual, and organization members. Find the full list of endorsements.
