Instead of internationalising government control of the Internet by moving oversight from the US Commerce Department to a more inclusive body of governments, two US academics recommend privatisation.

Read the IP Watch report on the proposal of Prof. Milton Mueller and Brenden Kuerbis of Syracuse University, experts in internet governance issues,to the forthcoming NetMundial conference in Brazil.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation (WGEC) held what was supposed to be its last meeting in Geneva on 24-28 February, but failed to agree certain key issues so it will meet again on 7-9 May

As Richard Hill for IP Watch explains, the WGEC were difficult, and it proved impossible to reach consensus on the key issue of “enhanced cooperation” to address Internet governance.

The US government has urged an upcoming forum on Internet governance “to avoid excessive deliberation on issues known to divide participants”, especially the reach or limitations of state sovereignty in Internet policy.

The forum, the Global Multi-stakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance (‘Netmundial’), takes place in Brazil in late February 2014.

According to the US government’s submission, existing multistakeholder institutions deserve significant credit for the Internet’s global growth and dynamism and should remain the cornerstones of the Internet governance ecosystem. Governments should ensure that “the proper incentives and environment are in place domestically so that a single, interoperable Internet can flourish globally, enabling freedom of expression and economic prosperity”.

Public service media organisations have joined with online content and software providers to urge the European Parliament to strengthen rules on net neutrality in its draft Single Telecoms Package Regulation.

IP Watch reports that the media organisations and content providers oppose current provisions that allow ISPs to provide ‘specialised’ services running on different bandwidths in parallel to the open Internet.

Lobby group La Quadrature du Net raised particular concern about amendments that would allow telecom operators to degrade certain types of traffic (e.g. peer-to-peer), and to make deals with Internet services (e.g. YouTube or Netflix) to grant them priorised delivery through so-called specialised services.

The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on the Regulation on the  on 24 February 2014.

Although the number of households with Internet access is increasing in all regions, large differences still persist, says the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

According to a recent ITU report, Internet penetration rates at the end of this year set to reach almost 80 per cent in the developed world, but only 28 per cent in the developing world.

The report estimates that 1.1 billion households worldwide are not yet connected to the Internet, 90 per cent of which are in the developing world.

Richard Stallman, founder of the free software movement, Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and John Perry Barlow, founding member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are among the 32 inductees into the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame.

The inductees, being individuals who have made ground-breaking contributions to the global Internet, were announced by Internet Society (ISOC).

Six prepared opinions supporting and promoting Internet infrastructure, among other things, were adopted at the 2013 World Telecom Policy Forum, reports IP Watch.

The European Commission has unveiled plans for an online platform to improve knowledge and participation on issues related to global internet policymaking.

According to the Commission press release, the Global Internet Policy Observatory will “act as a clearinghouse for monitoring Internet policy, regulatory and technological developments across the world”.

GIPO will not replace existing mechanisms and fora where global Internet governance is discussed, such as the Internet Governance Forum. Rather, its objective is to be a tool-box for stakeholders and an instrument to strengthen existing Internet policy-making processes, making full use of modern technology.