In an era where the rise of Internet technology and its pros and cons become hot issues for global debate, India proposes renaming the "Internet" to "Equinet," bolstering its move to decentralize the operations of the World Wide Web. That way, all nations would have an equal say, instead of the United States having too much control over it.
India will put its challenge on the table at the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on April 23 and 24. Also called NETmundial, the global meeting is to discuss principles on Internet governance and a road map for evolving the Internet Governance Ecosystem.
It was initiated by Brazil in light of the leaked reports of U.S. agencies spying on Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president, and other high government officials. The leaked reports came from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Research says the idea of Equinet first came out from Kapil Sibal, India's communications minister, during an Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2012.
"Equinet means an equitable Internet, which plays the role of an equalizer in the society and [is] not limited only to the privileged people," said CEO Dr. Govind of the National Internet Exchange of India.
Sivasubramanian Muthusamy, who is president of Internet Society India in Chennai, as well as participant in the NETmundial, said the concept of Equinet isn't achievable.
"Totally wrong idea. Internet provides a level playing field already. It is designed and operated to be universally accessible, free and open. Internet as it is operated today offers the greatest hope for developing countries to access global markets and prosper," he said.
Interestingly, a draft of the paper to be discussed was made available online since last week and is even open for any comment. Apparently, there's a sense of dissatisfaction among the stakeholders, criticizing the document for discussion for its lack of any strength.
In a letter posted at NETmundial.net, the draft was criticized for several things, including removing references to net neutrality and no mention of mass surveillance by the NSA and other active parties supposedly involved.
Meanwhile, Ben Wagner and Milton Mueller, said to be experts of Internet governance, see the global meeting as merely a rehash of old debates, based on their paper Finding a Formula for Brazil: Representation and Legitimacy in Internet Governance.
News came out in March that the U.S. intends to abandon control of a vital part of ICANN, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, after 16 years of control. Critics said it appeared to be a move of the U.S. against criticism that it controls the Internet.
The global meeting will have representatives from around 180 countries and have 33 remote participation centers in 23 nations. It will be streamed live on Netmundial.br. India is said to possibly to take sides with China, Iran, Russia, Brazil and South Africa.
With 220 million users, India is the third-largest Internet community, after the United States and China.
