Indian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad announced India’s support for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance.
The announcement was made during the opening ceremony of ICANN’s 53rd public meeting in Buenos Aires.
“The internet must remain plural. It must be managed by a multistakeholder system,” said Prasad. “Not only do we support multistakeholderism, but also we encourage multistakeholderism itself to embrace all geographies and all societies. We will partner with you all to make this a reality. We must work toward this new form of digital democracy.”
On March 14, 2014, the United States government announced its intent to transition its stewardship of the IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community.
“Today, with India joining this group of countries that openly support the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, we increase our ranks significantly,” said ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé. “The decision that was made by India is a significant decision.”
CANN also announced the winners of the 2015 Multistakeholder Ethos award - community leader Cheryl Langdon Orr and Africa Internet pioneer Nii Quaynor. The award is given to members of global Internet community who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the multistakeholder model.
“People have put enormous effort to make this multistakeholder effort go, and thank you. Thank you all for this effort. It will be recorded in history,” said Chehadé.