Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, has announced that they will be holding a global Internet Governance Summet in April of 2014. The summit, he says, is in response to the information which was leaked by Edward Snowden, revealing the massive spying the US performs on countries around the world, including alleys like Brazil. The decision to hold the summit was apparently made after meeting with Fadi Chehade, the Chief Executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Rousseff Tweeted, “We have decided that Brazil will host in April 2014 an international summit of governments, industry, civil society and academia.” The summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has been upset about the spying performed by the NSA and other US government agencies for some time. Fadi Cheade has also been upset with the cyber spying performed by the US and other governments.
Cheade said the following about a recent speech given to the UN General Assembly by the Brazilian President, “She spoke for all of us on that day. She expressed the world’s interest to actually find out how we are going to all live together in this new digital age. The trust in the global internet has been punctured and now it’s time to restore this trust through leadership and institutions can make that happen.”
At this point there is no news on who all will be attending the summit, or the specific agenda which will be discussed. If, however, this summit can attract important names from governments and industries, it could be a big step toward having improved standards when it comes to how the Internet will be used in International dealings. This type of summit has, in my opinion, been sorely needed for some time. Hopefully it will be a success, and help improve the Internet, and reduce the cyber spying performed by countries around the world.
