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This opinion piece was originally published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
As the United Nations turned 75, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the General Assembly by calling for a New Global Deal to ensure that political and economic systems deliver on critical global public goods. “Today, that is simply not happening,” he said. “We have huge gaps in governance structures and ethical frameworks. To close these gaps, we need to ensure that power, wealth and opportunities are broadly and fairly shared.”
At the Internet Society, we couldn’t agree more. But just what will this ‘New Global Deal’ and its governance structures look like with regards to digital cooperation? Let’s make sure that traditional, top-down governance of the Internet is not the answer.
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored just how much we depend on the Internet and its distributed governance model. Because the Internet is a network of networks, its resilience is largely due to the planning, swift action, and cooperation of its interconnected participants.
And we are just at the beginning of the journey, with only 51% of the world’s population currently able to access the Internet. To get the remaining, unconnected half online, we need collaborative bottom-up Continue reading