Interpreting the second wave of cyber security threats to China (2)

The EU then offered to broker a deal between the two parties. In June 2005, the EU Council of Ministers outlined its position on Internet governance by proposing a new cooperation model to solve conflicts over the management of the Internet's core resources, namely the domain names systems, IP addresses, and the root server system. This new cooperation model stated that "the existing Internet governance mechanisms should be founded on a more solid democratic, transparent and multilateral basis, with a stronger emphasis on the public policy interest of all governments," and should be based on two principles ranging from "it should not replace existing mechanisms or institutions" to "it should contribute to the sustainable stability and robustness of the Internet." According to my European colleagues, this proposal was raised to bridge differences between China and U.S.

When I was reading about this in 2005, I failed to see the value of the proposal itself and the significance of the role of EU in this grand dispute because I disliked state interference. In retrospect, both the EU proposal and the EU's role were a viable solution that accurately reflected the multi-stakeholder principle in Internet governance. One would expect that the U.S. would respond positively to the EU's stance because it clearly stated that the new model should not replace existing mechanisms, but U.S. simply said no.

Why was U.S. so afraid of a European role? In 2005, Internet policy researchers did not fully grasp the reason why the U.S. preferred a G-2 mechanism when over 170 states and over 600 civil society groups who wanted to share their concerns. At that time, Internet policy researchers believed the U.S. did not approve of the word "public" in the proposal. After all, European values of public service media are inconsistent with the American view of private media. In hindsight, I believe that the U.S. dismissed the EU proposal because it will limit their power to manipulate public opinion.

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