The formation of a triangular coalition of companies, governments and NGOs as a much-needed step towards establishing a free internet was the focus of two recent  international conferences, held in San Francisco in October and in The Hague in December.

The first event was organized by international digital rights group ACCESS, along with Google and other major digital companies. Hundreds of energetic young participants representing internet companies, cyber rights activists, women’s groups and advocacy groups presented a ‘Silicon valley Standard’ as a challenge to companies and governments.

The second event, hosted by the Dutch government on December 9th in The Hague, brought the governments of various countries together and  resulted in a declaration endorsed by fourteen of them. Apart from anything else, this represents a symbolic victory in the battle against repressive regimes.

Some weeks prior to the event a facebook posting had brought hope to many living under such regimes, who have to battle against censorship and put up with slow, ‘Halal’ internet connections. “If nothing else, events like this worry the government. Hopefully we can look forward to the day when we can access the internet without being disconnected every five minutes´, wrote one Iranian facebook user.

With repressive regimes continuing to introduce measures aimed at limiting their citizens’ access to the free flow of digital information, the triangular coalition faces serious challenges.  The campaign had to happen sooner or later, but at this stage it is merely symbolic, lacking  vision and strategy.  While Google is being praised for its role in providing digital human rights services and software, other companies are concerned about fair economic competition.  Governments which jointly criticised on-line censorship in such countries as China, Syria and Iran are themselves vulnerable to public pressure regarding measures they have imposed at home. At the San Francisco conference, various NGOs pointed to restrictions imposed by the UK and the US during this year’s riots in London and the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ campaign. While the coalition rightly praised uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, it failed to acknowledge the part played by Wikileaks, whose information about dictators in Arab countries was a catalyst for anti-government protests there.

The internet has upset the traditional balance of power.  As consumers, voters and campaigners, people now have access to new ways of making choices. As Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt pointed out, “the new generation is better at circumventing barriers than governments are at erecting them.”

Remember when consumers were only given two weeks to return shoddy goods? Not any more. The internet has enabled the present generation to challenge companies about poor-quality products, sometimes by simply uploading revealing video material onto YouTube, or calling for a boycot of anything from a badly-made pair of shoes to repressive software. Individuals with no links to any organization have more power than before.

Young people can reach the world by establishing an on-line group, while traditional NGOs have great difficulty dealing with the new era and the new generation. During recent political eruptions in the Middle East bloggers were found to have a better understanding of the situation than NGOs with decades of experience in the region.  Integrating digital grass-roots organisations with established international NGOs is a challenge, as noted by Hivos director Manuela Monterio.

Various  urgent concerns have yet to be raised. Should governments with an anti-repressive stance use it as a PR instrument for their foreign policy, or should they be more concerned about helping those in need? How to engage small companies that provide democratic digital services and wish to remain anonymous? How to involve grass-roots organisations combatting digital repression and make them part of the solution? The  manifold achievements made by the international women’s movement in breaching the digital gap – both economically and politically –  remained unmentioned in The Hague meeting.  Too often the internet’s role in empowering women is forgotten.

Nevertheless both conferences were a step in the right direction.  The triangular coalition can now convert its symbolic impact into a strategy, involving  also scientists and experts, as well as the new generation of digital grass-roots organisations and an on-line community adept at providing practical solutions quickly.

During the political disturbances in Egypt in 2011 Google provided a service which converted voicemail messages to tweets. The same solution was adopted by a group of Iranian journalists and women’s rights activists during post-election demonstrations in Iran in 2009.  In the absence of digital support, Shahzrad News’ journalists in Iran left messages on answering machines which later appeared on twitter and websites.

Source : Shahrzad News