Analyses of the evolution of the themes 'net neutrality’ and 'data protection' at the Internet Governance Forum: from 2013 until 2018

Abstract

This article presents the evolution of the themes data protection and net neutrality from the meetings of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), both in the understanding of concepts and in the practices exercised, highlighting the importance of multistakeholder discussions. To this end, the topics that were selected are two of the main issues discussed during the decade of 2010 and which significantly involve the dynamics between government and private sectors. We highlight the technology giants Google and Facebook, for their central roles in collecting and processing personal data on a global level, as well as their influences on the net neutrality theme, that is, that the content transmitted to the user is the same for everyone who access their services without any discrimination. Discourse analysis begins in 2013 when the Snowden case occurred, and the topic of privacy becomes a priority in discussions related to the Internet, when the net neutrality in 2015 and 2016 was a central issue, but with a return to protection of personal data in 2018, the year in which the case of the Cambridge Analytica consultancy is revealed, also bringing a resumption of the state's role in cyberspace. It is concluded that although the Internet Governance Forum does not make decisions with some enforcement power over platforms, it generates discussions and evolution of concepts that shape regulatory actions, mostly prioritizing flexibility thanks to the participation of several sectors in the discussion, which means, the multistakeholder model proves to be efficient, even though there is sometimes a private preponderance (2013), sometimes a governmental one (2018).