Go to content

WRR highlights urgent need to protect the Internet through international policy

News item | 10-04-2015 | 14:29

In The public core of the internet: an international agenda for internet governance, a WRR Policy Brief written for the Global Conference on Cyber Space 2015 the WRR argues for a new agenda for Internet Governance.

Enlarge image
Image: ©LyonLabs, LLC and Barrett Lyon / Creative Commons

Urgent need of protection

The backbone protocols and infrastructure of the internet are in urgent need of protection against unwarranted interference in order to sustain the growth and the integrity of the internet. Countering the growing state interference with this backbone requires a new international agenda for internet governance that departs from the notion of a global public good. Core ingredients of this strategy are:

  • To establish and disseminate an international norm stipulating that the internet’s public backbone must be safeguarded against unwarranted intervention by governments.
  • To advocate efforts to clearly differentiate between internet security (security of the internet infrastructure) and national security (security through the internet) and have separate parties address these different forms.
  • To broaden the arena for cyber diplomacy to include new coalitions of states (including the so-called ‘swing states’) and private companies, including both internet giants as well as internet intermediaries such as Internet Service Providers.

Policy Brief

The policy brief was written by prof. dr. Dennis Broeders on the basis of the Dutch report De publieke kern van het internet. Naar een buitenlands internetbeleid, which was presented to the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bert Koenders, on 31 March 2015.

Publications