INTERNET GOVERNANCE FOR WHOM? CIVIL SOCIETY, REPRESENTATION, AND DIGITAL RIGHTS

Authors

  • Rohan Grover University of Southern California USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11927

Keywords:

digital rights, activism, global south, postcolonial studies

Abstract

Internet governance institutions embrace a multistakeholder approach, which calls for civil society organizations (CSOs) to represent community interests. How well do digital rights CSOs fulfill these expectations of “community representation”? Through a case study of the Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian digital rights organization, this paper evaluates community engagement mechanisms through the lens of equity and democratization, and identifies a gap between expectations and observed practices. It concludes that evaluating representation in digital-native CSOs should account for both socioeconomic and technological dynamics in both transnational and national contexts. This paper offers a contribution to an emergent understanding of civil society’s role in internet governance, grounded in a postcolonial critique of representation and legitimacy, in order to understand whose voices are heard, and whose are still excluded, from internet governance processes.

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Published

2021-09-15

How to Cite

Grover, R. (2021). INTERNET GOVERNANCE FOR WHOM? CIVIL SOCIETY, REPRESENTATION, AND DIGITAL RIGHTS. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11927

Issue

Section

Papers G