internet regulation
Recently there have been a flurry of proposals to “regulate the internet”, which in practice boils down to more narrowly regulating online content. In order to suggest a principles-based approach to regulation, this issue paper highlights positive and negative aspects of some recent initiatives.
Multistakeholderism… what an alien word to a regulator! I walked into the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) 2017 with this exact mindset. Working for a regulator gives you false confidence; that you call all the shots, that your decisions are final, that the operators you regulate should either tow the line or change their line of business.
Current ITRs date from 1988 and considering the changes in the telecoms sector since then it is not surprising that they are up for review. The question is whether the upcoming WCIT poses a ‘threat’ to the internet. See APC’s perspective on the revision of the ITRs.
