AP
Russia's President Vladimir Putin with Prime Minister Narenda Modi,
left, in Ufa, Russia on Wednesday. Ufa hosts SOC (Shanghai Cooperation
Organization) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)
summits.
The BRICS summit in Ufa comes at a crucial juncture in India’s Internet diplomacy.
BRICS leaders are gathered in the Russian town of Ufa for the bloc’s
annual summit, and Internet governance is high on their agenda. The
summit comes at a crucial juncture in India’s internet diplomacy. Last
month in Buenos Aires, at a conference organised by the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), IT minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad offered an “Indian vision for the Internet”. ICANN is the
organisation that manages the Domain Name System, which serves as the
backbone for all technical and commercial activity in cyberspace. In his
recorded message, Mr. Prasad declared India would move away from
state-led approaches to governing the Internet, preferring instead a
mechanism that co-opts the private sector and civil society into the
policy-making process. India’s embrace of this model – called
“multi-stakeholderism” – was followed at home by the launch of the
“Digital India week”, which underlined the enormous political capital
that the Narendra Modi government has invested in technological
solutions to governance. The Buenos Aires declaration, however, merely
stated New Delhi’s position: in Ufa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and
his delegation will be queried extensively by their interlocutors on the
consequent cyber strategies India will pursue.
Modi’s Russian hosts, in particular, are concerned by the developments
of last month. Having long considered India as a traditional ally in
mooting a prominent role for governments in cyberspace, Russian
diplomats in attendance at ICANN were caught off guard by Prasad’s
statement. Ahead of the summit, Moscow has circulated a zero draft among
BRICS members that devotes substantial space to Internet governance.
The Russian intervention is unlikely to make it to the BRICS communiqué
in its current avatar, given disparity in views among the grouping’s
members. Those differences, however, do not diminish the unique role
that BRICS can play in calling out deficiencies in the present system,
especially as it relates to the monopolistic hold US businesses have
over the Internet.
New Delhi, a late entrant to global cyber-politics, should steer clear
of the ideological discourse that currently clouds the Internet
governance debate. Pegging countries as defenders or detractors of
“Internet freedom” does little to identify their core interests. In
contrast to India, all four BRICS constituents will head to Ufa with
clear motivations. A successful summit in Ufa will be a shot in the arm
for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued efforts to defy Western
attempts at political isolation. On the cyber front, Moscow is
concerned about sanctions on civilian Internet services and software
that the United States has imposed in the Crimea. ICANN being a
California-based corporation subject to US laws, has had no option but
to comply with these sanctions. At the summit, Russia would want to
highlight the consequences of unilateral US control of cyberspace.
China, for all the noise around its home grown, self-sufficient
Internet, has been among the most active participants in international
cyber negotiations. Last week, China’s top cybersecurity official Lu Wei
attended the inaugural council meeting of the Net Mundial Initiative in
Sao Paulo, where he spoke of the need to “safeguard the normal order of
the Internet.” Not only did Lu engage the Initiative – a discussion
platform co-hosted by Brazil, ICANN and the World Economic Forum that
India has cautiously stayed away from – but he also took Jack Ma,
founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, with him to the event. Jack
Ma was elected co-chairman of the council. The Communist Party may be
the final arbiter of Internet policies in China but it is clear that
Beijing sees “multistakeholderism” as a diplomatic tool to promote its
own businesses, which are vying with American Internet giants in global
markets.
Brazil, a leader in Internet diplomacy, has highlighted the legal and
political concerns associated with ICANN’s incorporation in the United
States. “The legal status of ICANN should constitute an indispensable
element” of any proposal to transition key DNS functions to the global
community, the Brazilian government has argued. For its part, the US
recently courted a state visit by Dilma Rouseff in an attempt to defuse
the still-simmering controversy surrounding the Snowden revelations of
US snooping on the Brazilian president. At the summit, Brazil will
attempt to steer the BRICS position to neutral territory, while
espousing the cause for greater “internationalisation” of Internet
policy-making.
South Africa may not enjoy the same profile as its BRICS counterparts on
cyber policies, but it remains a pivotal player in the G77 group of
developing economies. During recent consultations hosted by the United
Nations, South Africa spoke for the G77, and highlighted the important
role of governments in articulating Internet policy.
Where does India fit in this equation? By endorsing the
“multistakeholder” line, New Delhi has suggested it is willing to play
by the rules the US has set for governing cyberspace. To follow up, the
Modi government must convey two important messages to its American
interlocutors. First, that “multistakeholderism” does not mean business
as usual - India’s support for US-centric institutions will be
conditioned by their utility to domestic Internet companies and users.
ICANN’s policies on auctioning domains, protection of digital trademarks
and copyrights, and access to the WHOIS database of registered sites
must be reviewed to reflect developing country concerns. Second, the US
government must nudge its Internet corporations to establish a credible
information-sharing platform with the Indian government to identify
potential cybersecurity threats. The BRICS summit offers India a
megaphone to relay yet another message. New Delhi will play ball with
the US, that message should read, but will not hesitate to shake hands
with those countries that seek a “de-monopolisation” of critical
Internet infrastructure.
(Arun Mohan Sukumar is a lawyer and journalist.)
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