In a piece for the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), 2012 Google Policy Fellow Kieran Bergmann wrote about Internet governance and the role of the Internet Governance Forum. Below is an exerpt from “Why It Matters: The Internet Governance Forum”:
Who should control the Internet? That’s the question that gets discussed every year at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a UN initiative created in 2005. The IGF brings together all of the key parties with a stake in the Internet governance debate – from governments, the private sector and civil society.
Last November at the seventh annual forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, leaders of the Pirate Party faced off against Internet giants like Google and Facebook, while bloggers had the opportunity to rub shoulders with big names, including Vint Cerf, one of the “fathers of the Internet”, and Larry Strickling, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information.
Read the full piece here.