<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://open-internet-governance.org/letter">https://open-internet-governance.org/letter</a><div><h1 style="font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;white-space:balance;line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">An Open Letter to the United Nations</h1><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">1 July 2024</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">Secretary-General António Guterres and Envoy on Technology Amandeep Singh Gill,</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">Since its inception more than fifty years ago, the Internet’s technical architecture has evolved and been collaboratively maintained through multistakeholder processes. While it was born in government laboratories, the Internet became a network of networks that kept expanding and required continuous work. Much of that was coordinated in the <a href="https://ietf.org/">Internet Engineering Task Force</a> (IETF), an open, consensus-based, bottom-up, voluntary and global standards body.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">More than thirty five years ago, the World Wide Web was born in the laboratories of CERN. It, too, quickly evolved into a global public tool, maintained and developed by a collaboration of like-minded engineers and other stakeholders at the <a href="https://w3.org/">World Wide Web Consortium</a> (W3C). It, too, is an open, bottom-up, consensus-driven, voluntary and global standards body.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">The success of the both IETF’s and W3C’s work can be measured by where the Internet is today and what it has achieved: global communication has flourished, bringing education, entertainment, information, connectivity and commerce to most of the world’s population. The Internet has been a catalyst for advancing development. These communities and the way they have structured themselves have paid off.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">We recognize that governments take seriously their responsibility to protect their citizens. So, as harms associated with the Internet and the Web become more apparent, there is a desire on the part of governments to act through regulation and legislation. Technical architecture can enable and influence how the Internet is used, but on its own it cannot address abuse, misinformation, inequality, or many other issues. There is nevertheless a potential danger in regulation and legislation, if it undermines the fundamentally empowering nature of the Internet.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">The Internet is an unusual technology because it is fundamentally distributed. It is built up from all of the participating networks. Each network participates for its own reasons according to its own needs and priorities. And this means, necessarily, that there is no center of control on the Internet. This feature is an essential property of the Internet, and not an accident. Yet over the past few years we have noticed a willingness to address issues on the Internet and Web by attempting to insert a hierarchical model of governance over technical matters. Such proposals concern us because they represent an erosion of the basic architecture.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">In particular, some proposals for the <a href="https://www.un.org/techenvoy/global-digital-compact">Global Digital Compact</a> (GDC) can be read to mandate more centralized governance. If the final document contains such language, we believe it will be detrimental to not only the Internet and the Web, but also to the world’s economies and societies.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">Furthermore, we note that the GDC is being developed in a multilateral process between states, with very limited application of the open, inclusive and consensus-driven methods by which the Internet and Web have been developed to date. Beyond some high-level consultations, non-government stakeholders (including Internet technical standards bodies and the broader technical community) have had only weak ways to participate in the GDC process. We are concerned that the document will be largely a creation only of governments, disconnected from the Internet and the Web as people all over the world currently experience them.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">Therefore, we ask that member states, the Secretary-General and the Tech Envoy seek to ensure that proposals for digital governance remain consistent with the enormously successful multistakeholder Internet governance practice that has brought us the Internet of today. Government engagement in digital and Internet governance is needed to deal with many abuses of this global system but it is our common responsibility to uphold the bottom-up, collaborative and inclusive model of Internet governance that has served the world for the past half century.</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)">Signed,</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)"><em>All signatures are in a personal capacity; affiliations are informational only.</em></p><ul class="gmail-siglist gmail-twocol" style="columns:2;column-gap:2em;list-style:none;padding-left:0em;margin-left:20px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:equity_text,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(253,254,249)"><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Daniel Appelquist <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">W3C TAG co-chair</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">David Baron <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former W3C TAG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Hadley Beeman <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">W3C TAG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Robin Berjon <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former W3C TAG; former W3C HTML Activity Lead</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Andrew Betts <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former W3C TAG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Sir Tim Berners-Lee <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">inventor of the World Wide Web; founder & emeritus director, W3C</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Tim Bray <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former W3C TAG; Editor of XML (W3C), JSON (IETF)</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Randy Bush <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IESG, former ISO/WG13</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Dr. Brian E. Carpenter <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former Group Leader, Communication Systems, CERN; former IAB chair; former ISOC BoT chair; former IETF chair</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Vint Cerf <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">Internet Pioneer</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">David Conrad <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IANA general manager; former ICANN CTO</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Martin Duke <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IESG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Dr. Lars Eggert <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IETF chair; former IRTF chair</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Dr. Stephen Farrell <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">Trinity College Dublin; former IESG; former IAB</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Demi Getschko <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">.br</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Christian Huitema <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IAB chair</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Geoff Huston <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former ISOC BoT chair; former IAB</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Erik Kline <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">IESG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Mallory Knodel <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IAB</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Konstantinos Komaitis <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">senior resident fellow, Internet Governance lead, Democracy and Tech Initiative, Atlantic Council</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Chris Lilley <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">W3C Technical Director; former W3C TAG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Peter Linss <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">W3C TAG co-chair</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Sangwhan Moon <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former W3C TAG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Jun Murai <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IAB; WIDE Project founder; former W3C steering committee; former ISOC BoT</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Mark Nottingham <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IAB; former W3C TAG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Lukasz Olejnik <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former W3C TAG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Colin Perkins <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">IRTF chair</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Pete Resnick <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IAB; former IESG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Alex Russell <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former W3C TAG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Peter Saint-Andre <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IESG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">David Schinazi <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">IAB</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Melinda Shore <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">IRSG; former IAB</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Robert Sparks <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IAB; former IESG</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Lynn St.Amour <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former Internet Society President and CEO; former UN IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group chair</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Andrew Sullivan <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">former IAB chair</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Martin Thomson <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">W3C TAG; former IAB</span></li><li style="break-inside:avoid-column">Brian Trammell <span style="padding-left:0.5em;font-family:equity_caps,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;font-size:0.7em;line-height:0.7">IRSG; former IAB</span></li></ul><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"><div><br></div><div><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Glenn McKnight, MA </div><div>Virtual School of Internet Governance </div>Chief Information Officer<div><a href="http://www.virtualsig.org" target="_blank">www.virtualsig.org</a> </div><div><b>YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION </b></div><div><b>Mobile  437-237-4655</b></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>