Rashid Ismailov, former deputy minister of telecoms in Russia, was, in September 2022, the unsuccessful candidate for the post of secretary general of the International Telecom Union (ITU), a United Nations agency, won by the American Doreen Bogdan -Martin. He explains why he opposes current Internet governance… and defends Russian censorship.
Are you in favor of changing global Internet governance towards the tripartite model desired by the UN?
I think both models are already obsolete. Nor the tripartite governance advocated by the UN [secteur privé, gouvernements et société civile, dont fait partie la communauté technique]nor the de facto multiparty system of ICANN [société pour l’attribution des noms de domaine et des numéros sur Internet, où la technologie, souvent américaine, domine] do not work. Because the main concern of member states is sovereignty. So, as I explained in my candidate program, the essential point is to define the international legal framework where all parties concerned would have agreed on the rules.
In your candidate program, you said that “new technologies (Internet of Things, cloud, blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data) are fundamentally changing businesses and management processes”: do Internet protocols (IP, IPv6, etc.) need to evolve to support all of this ?
Clearly, new technologies demand new standards. 5G or 6G have already reached the ceiling. Current Internet protocols cannot support the rapid pace of technological advancement. There will therefore be new protocols to meet the challenges of the digital revolution.
Ultimately, protocols and standards are developed to support global usage and connectivity, not discrimination. The new approach should therefore exclude any discrimination of users and countries. In France, for example, President Macron proposed limiting social media activity during the national crisis [les émeutes en France déclenchée par la mort du jeune Nahel M., à Nanterre, fin juin].
Facebook, Instagram and even X are blocked in Russia…
Some websites are blocked. Others are not. This is a matter of local legislation and sovereignty.
The Russian Internet uses ICANN domain names and IP and IPv6 protocols standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), two organizations based in the United States. What do you think ?
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