Is the Internet Governance Forum Losing its Relevance?

Abstract

In November 2019, Germany will host the world’s largest conference on global internet governance: the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF). This contribution reviews the IGF’s achievements and shortcomings as well as the conflicts that have marked its 13-year history. It further analyzes the ongoing criticism of the multi-stakeholder forum. In light of an increasingly fragmented regulatory framework for the global internet in addition to more and more countries striving for digital sovereignty, the IGF’s and UN’s roles to mediate and coordinate international cooperation in the field of internet governance are contested.