Laying the foundation for a commercialized internet: international internet governance in the 1990s

Abstract

In the current era, the commercial nature of the internet seems like a foregone conclusion. However, during the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, the structures and guidelines for how this global system would operate were unresolved. Clinton took direct steps to ensure the commercialization of the internet and made a deliberate effort to gain agreement with public and private interest groups both in the United States and abroad. This article examines those efforts, focusing on three key questions present in the global discourse: First, where does oversight for internet structures come from, both in terms of country of origin, but also in terms of public versus private sectors? Second, how do traditional economic concerns translate to this new system? And finally, what protections are prioritized in this system? In looking at the patterns in that discourse, I argue that the Clinton Administration’s leadership in the area of internet governance projected a concern for an open, global internet while in actuality, the Administration pursued a U.S.-centric approach to governance that prioritized commercial interests. Given the continued importance of national sovereignty in debates around internet governance, the decisions being made in the 1990s demand further consideration.