Vivian Yang, Lead Media Operations, China, Public Engagement, Tel.: +86 138 1056 7837, email vya@weforum.org
Dalian, People’s Republic of China, 9 September 2015 – World-renowned internet experts told a packed session on the opening day of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions that the economic and social aspects of the internet needs a new multistakeholder form of governance if the internet’s resilience is to be strengthened without stifling innovation.
The internet will soon represent a $4 trillion economy, mostly in the G20 countries. The challenge is to bring its benefits to all nations and people of the world. “The internet is no longer a vertical economy. There is no longer a distinct cyber-space. Today, all space is cyber. The internet is like a powerful river that needs rules and governance,” said Fadi Chehade, President and Chief Executive Officer, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), USA. The challenge is how to govern the internet while fostering “permissionless innovation,” he added. The right balance must be found.
The technical aspects of the internet are well governed. It is the social and economic aspects – issues such as privacy, security, human rights, trade and taxation – that are problematic. There is no worldwide governance for these issues. Where and by whom should the rules be made? This is the question of the century.
“Very soon, the world will have more than 3 billion people born after the advent of the internet. The internet will change the world in the next 85 years,” predicted Jack Ma, Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group, People’s Republic of China. Ma continued: “We know so little about the internet. We need to govern it like a zoo with a diversity of animals, not like a farm with very few species.”
Ma added: “We need multistakeholder governance. We need an ‘eWTO’ proposed by business and supported by governments that will bring the benefits of the internet to developing countries, women and young people.”
“One thing we all fear [for the internet] is walled gardens,” said Andrew Moore, Dean, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Some fear governance by governments that might use internet regulation to protect existing power structures; some fear regulation by large internet firms that might abuse dominant market power.
“We all want an open and useful Internet,” Moore continued. Governments can help by enacting measures that increase user trust of the information found on the internet. Making sure that users receive good service and accurate information through the use of objective data will increase trust, he argued.
Governments, alone, are not well suited to regulate the internet because it moves and changes so fast, while government regulatory processes are slow, noted Carlos Moedas, Commissioner, Research, Science and Innovation, European Commission, Brussels, a Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015. “Europe is now working on how to develop regulations that will be adaptable to future developments,” he said.
“The internet was designed to be transnational, not international. It is not built on the nation state model. It does not follow national borders,” Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman, Mozilla Foundation, USA, a Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015, told participants.
The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions opened today in Dalian, People’s Republic of China, and runs from 9 to 11 September. The meeting is a leading global gathering on innovation, entrepreneurship, science and technology. It is held in close collaboration with the Government of the People’s Republic of China, with the support of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The meeting is convening more than 1,700 participants from 90 countries under the theme, Charting a New Course for Growth.
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