Dr. Rafid Fatani With recent research indicating that Saudi Arabia has the highest per capita viewing of YouTube in the world, it's becoming apparent that the Internet plays an important role in today's society. For this reason, I was quick to accept my invitation to NetMundial in Sao Paolo, Brazil, a global meeting to determine how the Internet should be governed, not only from my position as a global Internet governance consultant but also as a Saudi citizen. The President of Brazil initiated NetMundial having been alarmed about the governance status of the Internet. While the objective of the meeting, which was to agree in a two-day event upon shared international principles, was ambitious, the significance of the conference was clearly evident from the list of attendees. It was apparent that the world is waking up to the Internet governance debate. With a long list of attendees that included heads of states, the UN Under-Secretary-General, heads of intergovernmental organizations, foreign ministers and other ministers of state, I was surprised to discover that Saudi Arabia's delegation was only headed by the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) and not by dignitaries responsible for wider foreign policy. This was perhaps an understated and ambitious approach by Saudi Arabia which was attending the meeting to voice its call for change in the governance status quo. What is more, Saudi Arabia's stance on wanting to change was shared by just a handful of nations, meaning that Saudi Arabia was in agreement and in the company of Iran, Russia and China. I don't need to tell you how unusual it is to see Saudi Arabia and Iran share the same views and play for the same team and it made me question just how much consultation CITC carried out with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding its stance and its impact on foreign policy. The Internet has run effectively for over 25 years, and the majority consensus is that the US ensured that ICANN, a global non-profit group that assigns domain names and subsequently manages an essential part of the Internet infrastructure, is run with no governmental influence. However, following recent allegations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has monitored the emails of many heads of states, US President Obama announced a crucial decision on Internet governance and by September 2015 the US will cease overseeing ICANN. While mostly symbolic, the move is widely seen as a long overdue step toward a globalized administration of the Internet. Internet companies like Google voiced their concern about governments using the NETmundial meeting to push for regulation and interference that could inhibit innovation and ultimately harm the Internet. Saudi Arabia, like Iran, Russia and China, wants a strong state presence in the decision-making process of Internet governance. Talking on behalf of the Kingdom, the CITC delegate announced, “international public policy in regard to the Internet is the right of governments and that public policy should be developed by all governments on an equal footing.” This makes Saudi Arabia a minority country that does not believe in involving all interested stakeholders in its Internet policy-making process. Listening to delegates, it was evident that the majority of countries agreed on a multi-stakeholder governing approach that involves the technical community, academia, civil society and the corporate sector. This was important as delegates made it clear that no government could ever create adequate up-to-date policy in the fast-pace technological era. What's more, it is imperative for governments to sit down with all interested parties when writing Internet policy to ensure it will remain current and relevant by the time it is written. The Saudi government itself experienced this first-hand when it examined the possibility of banning all mobile phones that had a camera, only to realize a long way down the line once a lot of time had been invested in this proposal, that cameras had already become a feature in most mobile phones by that point. I can't help but notice that the Saudi position has not changed in nearly a decade. We only need to look around us to see how reliant we are on the Internet in our everyday lives and how different this is to ten years ago. The Internet is no longer limited to Internet cafes, but is today in your pocket, on your phone, and even available in remote areas of the Empty Quarter. Surely it's time that Saudi Arabia reassesses how realistically it can contribute to the changing landscape of governance. I don't believe the government truly wants to fragment the Internet, when it has spent so much time and financial investment in funding students studying abroad and multi-billion dollar technology infrastructure projects. Unlike Iran, the Saudi government is keen for its citizens to learn from the wider world through travel and technology which is why I feel that now is the time for the government to carefully consider its stance on the Internet. I hope that having attended NetMundial and having witnessed the composition of other national delegations there that the Saudi government will now acknowledge that Internet governance is no longer just a concern for the CITC in this new era of innovation, but has direct implications for many other government ministries. Dr. Rafid Fatani is a Saudi consultant for the United Nations Internet Governance Forum and is part of an advisory committee at ICANN representing Internet users. He is the founder of Internet consultancy SASIconsult and can be contacted at: [email protected]
