rt.com
December 16, 2015
Russia supports the creation of an international organization for regulating the internet with maximum participation of existing bodies such as United Nations, the prime minister said at the opening of the second World Internet Conference.
“We support the strengthening of the international community’s role in managing the internet, as well as the development of a global strategy in this sphere. We maintain that this must be done under the aegis of leading international institutions, including the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union,” Dmitry Medvedev said.
He added that the ITU or some similar organization should be given powers to develop international laws and standards of web management and also coordinate the work of national institutions engaged in this sphere.
The most important thing is to give all nations of the world equal access to the regulation of the internet, Medvedev noted. He also urged the participants of the conference to give national regulating institutions maximum powers in managing national segments of the web.
“In the future the internet must remain an open, global and distributed resource, but elements of state regulations of the web are also necessary,” Medvedev noted. The primary objective of such regulation is to provide the balance between the free access to information and the guarantees of the citizens’ basic rights and security, he said.
“We understand that from a legal point of view the internet is a new and very complex object for regulating and legal structures simply cannot keep up with the fast development of technology and data transfer. We should guarantee the people the security of their private life and protect copyright and other exclusive rights and at the same time guarantee the uninterruptable work of the internet,” Medvedev told the conference.
The Russian PM added that the web was threatened both by terrorists who were using it for direct attacks on people, companies and whole nations and state agencies which were launching and indiscriminately using new deliberate systems of electronic surveillance.
“Because of that, the sphere of international digital security demands attention of the entire global community,” he said.
Medvedev asked all participants of the conference to study and back the draft rules of providing international security in the information sphere, developed by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. He also backed the internet-regulating proposals by Chinese President Xi Jinping noting that these proposals should be thoroughly studied in order to be put into action.
