Internet governance
Join us at a special 30th anniversary event for World Press Freedom Day where freedom of expression rapporteurs will discuss the agreed conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women plus recommendations of the 2022 Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Gender Justice.
The Global Digital Compact provides an opportunity to agree on common principles that can make the internet and its governance more inclusive, human rights-based and supportive of sustainable development. APC believes that we need less of some things and more of others to achieve this goal.
In its statement, APC highlighted inclusive participation of communities in policy making, consideration of alternative solutions to connectivity that prioritise local and community-led responses, and a multistakeholder approach with differentiated roles and responsibilities.
Speaking on behalf of the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication and Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum, APC associate AHM Bazlur Rahman emphasised the need to create strong global governance of digital transformation through the Global Digital Compact.
In its statement, APC member Derechos Digitales stresses that the Compact being drafted should provide for proactive actions towards building effective multistakeholder processes and increasing broader participation in all digital cooperation and internet governance discussions.
In its statement to this Deep-Dive session, APC member organisation DEF, based in India, poses the question: Is internet governance relevant only to those who use and access the internet, or also to those who do not have the ability or privilege to have internet access?
How did the world begin to establish the internet's basic governance rules and try to enable universal access? Carlos Afonso, director of Nupef and co-founder of APC, offers a historical look at the uneven global internet governance movement, from the 1998 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meeting to the first World Summit on the Inform...
India imposed 84 internet shutdowns in 2022, the highest number globally for the fifth year in a row. APC joins a global civil society coalition to urgently ask the Indian government to create meaningful safeguards for citizens' digital rights and ensure unfettered access to an open, secure and reliable internet.
New applications like ChatGPT based on AI and large language models are likely to be transformative, a step change in technology like the internet was 30 years ago, but much faster. The technology is now out of the bag and can't be uninvented, and we should move swiftly to figure out its implications, deployment and governance.
Last year saw the highest number of internet shutdowns ever recorded. Such enforced digital darkness is a slippery slope of easy authoritarianism that we see spreading globally, one that countries like India, with the world's highest number of shutdowns, are using to gain undemocratic compliance from their citizens.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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